Bahrain national dialogue

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The Bahrain National Dialogue was an initiative instigated by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to promote reform and encourage discussion on the governance of Bahrain. The Dialogue began on 2 July 2011 and participants from over 300 organisations^[1] from across the Bahraini political spectrum were able to voice their concerns and thoughts freely and without being subject to conditions.^[2] The Dialogue was chaired by Parliament Speaker Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Dhahrani.

The National Dialogue was part of the King's response to the uprising that started in February 2011 and was running on parallel to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, which was looking into the details of the events and the government response to them.^[3]

Out of 300 participants, Al Wefaq, Bahrain's main opposition party, had only 5 seats and pulled out from the dialogue 2 weeks after it started and about 1 week before it ended. In total the opposition parties had only 25 out of 300 seats, according to Bahraini human rights activist Maryam al-Khawaja. Khawaja also stated: "By joining the dialogue, Al Wefaq suffered a lot of heavy criticism, and lost a lot of supporters, especially from the youth who felt they were being betrayed."^[4]