On June 24, 2025, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) and partner organizations delivered an intervention during the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. During the annual discussion on women’s rights, ADHRB highlighted the discrimination against women in Bahrain’s nationality and family laws.

Bahrain’s 1963 Citizenship Law is a pressing concern. It actively discriminates against women, denying them the right to pass their nationality to children born to foreign fathers, except when the paternity is unknown.

This policy violates fundamental human rights and puts children at risk of statelessness, denying them equal access to education, healthcare, and employment. As a result, families become entrenched in intergenerational cycles of poverty and marginalization. Meanwhile, mothers’ fears of losing their children are exacerbated by Bahrain’s Family Law, which denies them any guardianship rights.

Though women’s movements persistently advocate for reform, their efforts are limited by restrictive civil society laws and an environment where calls for equality are often conflated with treason.

Although Bahrain has committed to gender equality and the right to nationality under treaties like CEDAW, its current Citizenship Law remains fundamentally incompatible with the convention’s principles.

We, thus, urge Bahrain to honor its international obligations by amending its nationality and family laws to end gendered discrimination and call for accountability to guarantee effective reform.

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