while shackled in a windowless, unventilated vehicle without air conditioning.2 UNFAIR TRIALS On 26 September, a court convicted 13 out of 65 defendants in a mass trial of prisoners for allegedly assaulting guards at Jaw Prison on 17 April 2021. Leaked contemporaneous accounts by at least five prisoners, and accounts given under interrogation by at least four, stated that guards attacked prisoners, not the other way around. WORKERS’ RIGHTS In July, Bahrain’s royally appointed upper legislative chamber proposed a legal upper limit of BHD 120 (USD 320) per month for domestic workers’ salaries. Like other migrant workers, domestic workers continued to lack the protection of a minimum wage. Even though the effects of climate change began to be felt, with Bahrain experiencing its hottest August in over 100 years, the government did not revise its inadequate rules on heat protection, increasing the health risks for outdoor workers exposed to heat stress. RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT Bahrain remained one of the world’s top five highest emitters of CO2 per capita, according to World Bank data. Bahrain’s current Nationally Determined Contribution plan under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which it set in October 2021, makes no reference to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions, stating only a “renewable energy target” of “10% by 2025”. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Bahraini authorities continued to harass and unjustly prosecute their critics. On 30 March, a court convicted three members of an unorthodox religious group, the Altajdeed Society, for “insulting” Islamic figures and sentenced them to one year’s imprisonment. After an appeals court upheld the verdict on 21 May, authorities arrested the two defendants still living in Bahrain. 90 On 22 May, police summoned a Shia cleric, Mohamed Sanqoor, for giving a sermon criticizing what he described as inhumane treatment of prisoners. Authorities interrogated him for three days, releasing him without charge on 25 May. On 20 December, authorities detained opposition activist Ebrahim Sharif for tweets condemning the government’s policy on Israel, Palestine, the USA and the Red Sea. They released him on 27 December, suspending prosecution without dropping the charges. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF In June, security forces twice prevented Shia Bahrainis from reaching the Imam al-Sadiq mosque in al-Duraz for Friday prayers if they were not residents of the town. This mosque is the country’s foremost Shia place of worship. Police blockades on the roads into al-Duraz turned back Shia commuters from other areas, while allowing non-Shia travellers to pass, on 9 and 16 June, three weeks after Mohamed Sanqoor was arrested (see above). FREEDOM OF PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY The government reacted inconsistently to peaceful protests, repressing some but not others. Authorities did not act to prevent or break up periodic marches and other street protests in the Shia-majority suburban areas to the west of the capital, Manama. Several such marches during the August-September prisoners’ hunger strike approached without repression the Budaiya Highway, which was an important axis during the mass protests of 2011. However, on other occasions, the government summoned, warned, intimidated and arrested actual or potential protesters. In February, for example, the government summoned several family members of Bahrainis imprisoned or killed in the past by government forces and warned them against protesting around the anniversary of the 2011 uprising. On 21 February, the police station in Sanabis, a Shia suburb of Manama, summoned Jameel Taher al-Samea, the The State of the World’s Human Rights