MPs Back Host Country Deal for Hague Arbitration Court in Bahrain

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee has backed a draft law to ratify a host country agreement with the Permanent Court of Arbitration, clearing the way for the Hague-based body to establish a seat in Bahrain.

The proposed law, attached to Royal Decree 39 of 2025, has two articles. The first approves the Host Country Agreement between the Government of Bahrain and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, signed in Manama on 17 June 2025. The second is an enforcement clause bringing the law into force the day after it is published in the Official Gazette.

The agreement itself runs to 16 articles and gives the Court the legal standing it needs to operate in Bahrain. It confirms the kingdom as host state and commits the government to helping the Court handle international disputes through arbitration, mediation, conciliation and commissions of inquiry. Bahrain is to provide office space, meeting rooms and secretariat services, with named contact points on each side to handle day-to-day coordination.

The text grants the Court and its property immunity from legal proceedings, except where the Court makes an express waiver. Even in such cases, the waiver does not extend to enforcement measures. Official communications are protected, and the Court may use codes, couriers and sealed pouches which enjoy the same protections as diplomatic mail.

Court staff and arbitrators are, in general, to enjoy the same privileges and immunities Bahrain grants to experts working for the United Nations under the 1946 UN convention. These include immunity from legal action for spoken or written words and acts carried out in the course of their duties, the inviolability of papers and documents, and freedom from national service duties and certain immigration rules for them and their families. Bahraini nationals working in this capacity receive a narrower range of protections, limited to functional immunity and related guarantees linked directly to their work on the Court’s cases.

Government employees assigned by Bahrain to help run hearings or meetings in the kingdom are given immunity from legal proceedings in relation to words spoken or written and acts carried out in their official role, with this protection continuing after their tasks for the Court come to an end. A separate article deals with the position of participants in proceedings, including parties, witnesses, experts and agents, and sets out the protections they need to carry out their role.

The agreement stresses that these protections are granted to keep the Court’s work running properly rather than to offer personal advantage. Immunities start from the moment of appointment, whether or not the person is in Bahrain. The competent authority is required to waive immunity if it concludes that keeping it in place would obstruct justice, provided the Court’s interests and procedures are not harmed.

Individuals covered by the agreement must abide by Bahraini laws and regulations and avoid interference in internal affairs. The Secretary-General of the Court is responsible for preventing misuse of privileges and immunities. If there is misuse, the government is to consult the Secretary-General and may, where needed, ask those involved to leave Bahrain.

The kingdom is required to provide security for Court hearings and meetings, arbitrators and their spouses, Court staff and their spouses, participants in proceedings and others attending hearings. It must also take reasonable steps to ease the entry and stay of non-Bahraini Court staff, arbitrators, their family members and other participants, including issuing necessary visas quickly and without charge and allowing freedom of movement within Bahrain, subject to rules governing access to restricted areas for national security reasons.

On the regional level, Bahrain undertakes to contact counterparts in nearby states to inform them of the facilities offered under the agreement and to encourage them to use the Court’s procedures. The kingdom accepts no international responsibility for acts or omissions by the Court or its staff when acting within their mandate. Responsibility under the 1907 Hague Convention on the peaceful settlement of international disputes remains with the contracting parties to that treaty. Any dispute over the interpretation or application of the host country agreement is first to be addressed through negotiation and, failing that, by binding arbitration under the Court’s optional rules, before a sole arbitrator appointed by the President of the International Court of Justice.

According to the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Waqf Ministry, the agreement is in line with government plans to support the settlement of disputes by consent, in particular through mediation and arbitration, and to strengthen Bahrain’s role in that field.

The Foreign Ministry notes that the Permanent Court of Arbitration, founded in The Hague in 1899 under the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, now hears cases involving states, public bodies, intergovernmental organisations and private parties. It has a policy of signing host country agreements with member states so it can manage arbitration, mediation, conciliation and commissions of inquiry on their soil without a permanent office, while keeping open the option of a fixed seat.

In the ministry’s view, such agreements can draw parties to hold their cases in the host state rather than abroad, raise awareness of arbitration and other dispute settlement tools at home and in the region, encourage the use of domestic arbitration centres, widen the Court’s range of services and shield Bahrain from international responsibility for acts by the Court or its staff within their mandate. The ministry points out that the Court already has international offices in Buenos Aires, Hanoi, Mauritius, Singapore and Vienna, and counts 125 member states, including all GCC members except Oman, along with Arab states such as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Morocco.

The committee’s report records full agreement among members present on backing the draft law in principle and on keeping the title, preamble and both articles as submitted by the government. The chamber will now be asked to vote on the draft to complete the ratification process.