Bahrain: Enforced Disappearances Must End — Accountability Cannot Wait
On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) calls on the Bahraini authorities to immediately end enforced disappearance, disclose the fate and whereabouts of all disappeared persons, and ensure genuine accountability for those responsible.
Enforced disappearance is one of the most serious violations of human rights. It removes individuals from the protection of the law, deprives families of information about their loved ones, and creates conditions in which torture, ill-treatment and death can occur without effective oversight.
The case of Sayed Mohamed Al-Mosawi demonstrates the grave consequences of this practice. According to documented information, Al-Mosawi was stopped by Bahraini security forces at a checkpoint in Muharraq on 19 March 2026. His family was not informed of his fate for nine days, before being summoned to the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital and informed of his death. His body reportedly bore extensive injuries consistent with repeated blunt-force trauma. Human Rights First reported that Bahrain’s Special Investigation Unit acknowledged that Al-Mosawi died as a result of a beating in custody. (humanrightsfirst.org)
BCHR has previously called for an independent investigation into Al-Mosawi’s death, the disclosure of the fate and whereabouts of forcibly disappeared persons, and the release of detainees.
A return to the methods of repression seen since 2011
BCHR is deeply concerned that the case of Al-Mosawi cannot be viewed in isolation.
A May 2026 report by Human Rights First, titled “Bahrain’s Rulers Return to 2011 Repression Methods: Torture in Custody and Widespread Repression Resurface in Latest Attacks on Dissent,” documents a broad new wave of repression in Bahrain, including mass arrests, torture in custody, citizenship revocations and enforced disappearances. The report states that more than 400 arrests had been documented since the escalation of conflict in February 2026 and identifies enforced disappearance as one of the defining abuses of the 2011 crackdown that has again become a central feature of state repression. (humanrightsfirst.org)
Human Rights First further warned that Al-Mosawi’s death occurred amid what it described as Bahrain’s most severe wave of state repression since 2011, and that his case should not be treated as an isolated incident resolved simply through the prosecution of a single security official. (humanrightsfirst.org)
Enforced disappearance is not simply the unlawful detention of an individual. It deliberately removes a person from the protection of the law, denies families information about their loved ones, and creates conditions in which torture, ill-treatment and even death can occur with little or no oversight. International law recognises enforced disappearance as one of the most serious violations of human rights. (Global Human Rights Defence)
The case of Sayed Mohamed Almosawi demonstrates the devastating consequences of such practices in Bahrain. Almosawi was reportedly detained on 19 March 2026 and his whereabouts were denied to his family for days. His family eventually learned of his death in custody, while evidence concerning injuries to his body raised serious concerns of torture and ill-treatment. (Global Human Rights Defence)
BCHR previously called for an independent investigation into Almosawi’s death, the disclosure of the fate and whereabouts of forcibly disappeared persons, and the release of detainees. BCHR stressed that enforced disappearances and torture cannot be treated as isolated incidents but must be addressed through meaningful accountability and structural reform. (BCHR)
BCHR therefore stresses that accountability must extend beyond individual perpetrators to address institutional responsibility and the chain of command.
Those who ordered, authorized, facilitated, concealed or failed to prevent enforced disappearance, torture or deaths in custody must be investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted.
“Enforced disappearance is intended to make a person disappear from society and from the protection of the law. But no person can disappear from justice. The families have a right to know what happened to their loved ones, victims have a right to truth and justice, and those responsible must be held accountable. Bahrain must end enforced disappearance and dismantle the system of impunity that allows these violations to continue.”
— Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
BCHR calls on the Bahraini authorities to:
- Immediately end all practices of enforced disappearance and ensure that every person deprived of liberty is officially registered and held in a recognized place of detention.
- Immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of all disappeared persons and provide their families with accurate and timely information.
- Guarantee immediate access to lawyers, families and independent medical professionals for every person deprived of liberty.
- Conduct independent, impartial and transparent investigations into all allegations of enforced disappearance, torture, ill-treatment and deaths in custody.
- Investigate the full chain of command, including senior officials who ordered, authorized, facilitated, concealed or failed to prevent violations.
- Preserve and disclose evidence, including detention records, CCTV footage, interrogation records, medical documentation and other relevant evidence.
- Ensure accountability and effective remedies, including prosecution of those responsible and reparations for victims and their families.
- Release all individuals detained solely for exercising their fundamental rights, including peaceful political and human rights activists.
- End arbitrary and mass arrests and other forms of collective punishment, including measures targeting individuals because of their political opinions, peaceful expression, religious identity or perceived affiliation.
- Allow unrestricted access to Bahrain for UN human rights mechanisms and independent international observers, including mechanisms mandated to address torture and enforced disappearance.
- Ratify and implement the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and bring national legislation and practice into conformity with international human rights standards.
Call to the international community
BCHR calls on the United Nations, European Union, governments and international human rights mechanisms to urgently increase pressure on Bahrain to end enforced disappearance, torture and systematic repression.
The international community must not accept the prosecution of a single low-level official as sufficient accountability where evidence indicates broader institutional responsibility.
States should raise individual cases directly with the Bahraini authorities, demand information about disappeared persons, call for independent investigations, and ensure that human rights concerns remain central to diplomatic, security and political engagement with Bahrain.
The international community must also closely monitor the renewed pattern of mass arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and attacks on peaceful dissent documented in 2026. (humanrightsfirst.org)
Enforced disappearance must end. Torture must end. Impunity must end.
Families have the right to know the truth. Victims have the right to justice. And those responsible — regardless of rank or position — must be held accountable.
Bahrain cannot claim meaningful reform while the machinery of repression remains intact.
BCHR reiterates that there can be no genuine human rights reform or sustainable stability while people can be deprived of their liberty, hidden from their families and placed beyond the protection of the law.
Justice for the disappeared is not optional. Accountability is not negotiable.