group reported receiving threats from members of the public. In May, an MP suggested that transgender people be exiled to another island. RIGHT TO PRIVACY Local human rights groups expressed fear regarding government surveillance online. In August, the Supreme Court ruled that the Minister of Education had breached the constitutional rights to privacy and to freedom of expression of members of an environmental group when he obtained and read their private email correspondence in Parliament. Ministers had alleged that the group was seeking to destabilize the government, and argued that parliamentary privilege allowed them to read out the confidential emails. The Court held that parliamentary privilege was subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and ordered the destruction of the correspondence. At the end of the year, it remained unclear how the government had obtained the emails. In November, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to members of the environmental group who allegedly received threats against their lives and personal integrity because of their work as human rights defenders. The government, in response, said the allegations were misrepresented. BAHRAIN Kingdom of Bahrain Head of state: King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa Head of government: Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman alKhalifa The authorities tightened restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and association and continued to curtail the right to peaceful assembly. They detained and charged several human rights defenders and banned others from travelling abroad, dissolved the main opposition group and stripped more than 80 people of their Amnesty International Report 2016/17 Bahraini citizenship, forcibly expelling four. Opposition leaders continued to be imprisoned as prisoners of conscience. There were new reports of torture and other ill-treatment and unfair trials. Women continued to be discriminated against in law and practice. Migrant workers and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people faced discrimination. There were no new death sentences or executions. BACKGROUND In March, Bahrain became a state party to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. In May, Bahrain’s National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) received a “B” status from the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions as it was not fully compliant with the Paris Principles. One of the reasons given by the Committee was that the NIHR decision-making board included government representatives, undermining its independence. Also in May, the government signed a trade and economic agreement with Switzerland containing two non-legally binding memorandums on the treatment of prisoners and on women’s rights in Bahrain. In September the government of the USA blocked sales of fighter jets and related equipment to Bahrain pending human rights improvements. Bahrain remained part of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition engaged in armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). The government did not allow access to representatives from international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, throughout the year. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The authorities continued to severely restrict freedom of expression, arresting and prosecuting human rights defenders and religious activists for using public gatherings or social media to criticize the government, the Saudi Arabian authorities and air strikes by the Saudi Arabian-led coalition in Yemen. Opposition leaders sentenced in previous 77