Report on Citizenship Law Bahrain Zeineb Alsabeehg 1. Introduction Bahrain’s current law on citizenship is from 1963. The law, which is called Bahraini Citizenship Act of 1963, has been amended several times since it was first issued.1 This report describes how persons can acquire Bahraini citizenship and in which ways they can lose it, according to the law. In addition to examining the current citizenship regime (chapter 3), the report gives insight into the historical background of the amendments to the modes of acquisition and loss of citizenship in Bahrain since the country got its first citizenship act in 1937 (chapter 2). The country has one of the smallest populations in the Middle East with approximately 1,5 million inhabitants of whom less than half are Bahraini citizens.2 Bahrain is an island state located in the Persian Gulf. It is one of the Arab Gulf countries, being a member state of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The country is ruled by the Al-Khalifa royal family. The monarchy has from 2002 had a two-chambered legislature with same number of members in each chamber. Elections have been held regularly since then to one of the chambers, while the members to the other legislative chamber are directly appointed by the king. The government is also appointed by the king and consists to a large extent of members from the Al-Khalifa family. The king has supreme powers according to the Constitution from 2002.3 Bahrain has a long history of oppositional movements that has campaigned against the political system and to acquire greater space for political participation by the citizenry. This has influenced some of the amendments to the Bahraini Citizenship Act and the practical-political ways the government has handled citizenship issues. In particular, the uprising that Bahrain experienced in 2011 as part of the so-called “Arab Spring” paved the way to amendments to the regulation on deprivation of citizenship and hundreds of cases of revocation of citizenship of individuals predominantly linked to the opposition. The government has in the period post2011 restricted the activities of political and civil societies, including by suspending opposition groups that had earlier run for election and denaturalising some of their members. At least 990 individuals had their citizenship revoked between 2012 and 2019. 1 Bahraini Citizenship Act of 1963 (original title: 1963 ‫)ﻗﺎﻧﻮن اﻟﺠﻨﺴﯿﺔ اﻟﺒﺤﺮﯾﻨﯿﺔ ﻟﻌﺎم‬, available with its amendments at the Global Nationality Laws Database: https://globalcit.eu/national-citizenship-laws/ (accessed 10 January 2021). 2 ‘Bahrain: Population crosses 1.5 million, of which 52.6% are expats’, Gulf Insider, 13 October 2020 https://www.gulf-insider.com/bahrain-population-crosses-1-5-million-of-which-52-6-are-expats/ (accessed 10 January 2021). 3 ‘Bahrain: Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain’, 14 February 2002, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/48b54f262.html (accessed 10 January 2021). RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2021/6 - © 2021 Author(s) 1