Child Rights

The International Convention on the Rights of the Child (PDF, 790KB, 19 pages, Arabic only) was ratified by the Kingdom in 1992. Bahrain has also established a range of institutions and programs that put the articles and texts of this convention into practice and support international and regional initiatives to protect children’s rights. Most notable among these is the National Committee for Childhood and the launch of a National Strategy for Childhood.

Initiatives and projects

Projects related to children are aimed at promoting positive educational methods, creating an encouraging environment, and implementing the principles of child protection, care, and development. The Kingdom of Bahrain has taken important steps in this area through a number of initiatives and measures, most notably:

• Establishing a "Child Protection Center", which protects children up to the age of 18 who are exposed to family or community violence, and provides psychological, social, and legal services.
• Introducing a Child Helpline 998 to receive reports of any child being subjected to physical and psychological abuse, neglect, or sexual assault, and to deal with these reports.
• Providing guidance and referral services to authorities, if necessary.
• Establishing the Batelco Childhood Care Home, through which all accommodation, legal, educational, and recreational services are provided to children of unknown parentage, orphans, and those from broken families up to the age of 15.
• Forming a juvenile court in which children's privacy is taken into account, and is held in a separate location from other courts to make the procedures more comfortable for them.
• Opening children's and youth clubs and family guidance offices at all social centres located throughout the governorates.
• The formation of a National Committee for Childhood, which includes in its membership a number of relevant ministries and civil and private institutions, and works on implementing the action plan of the National Strategy for Childhood, and its four main pillars: the right to health and survival, the right to education and capacity development, the right to protection, and the right to participation and non-discrimination.

Protecting the rights of children

The Kingdom of Bahrain has issued many laws regulating the rights of children as ensured by the constitution, including the right to education, good health, entertainment, family custody, and others. These are represented in the laws regulating the registration of births and deaths, the conditions for issuing licenses for the establishment of kindergartens and nurseries, the laws of education, health, work, juveniles, family custody, and penalties. Most notable is the adoption of the Child Law No. (37) of 2012 (PDF, 1830KB, 21 pages) which became the main point of reference for all laws related to children and the protection of their rights.