This study issued by Bahrain Interfaith Center aims to depict the influence of BICI’s work and recommendations in promoting national reconciliation in Bahrain. It reveals the importance of making reconciliation and its essential role in building peace. Furthermore, by analyzing a lot of studies, it became clear that dialogue is the only way to address the global crises, including the crisis of Bahrain.

The design of this study is a randomized controlled trial. A questionnaire was sent to ten Bahraini politicians, who were randomly selected from the loyal and the opposition groups, to assess the influence of the BICI report on national reconciliation in Bahrain. The questionnaire was designed to be brief and straightforward by asking simple questions and soliciting approximations of caseloads. As for the units of measurement, they are as follows: views on the establishment of the Committee, in addition to the degree of its acceptance, the percentage of agreement with its report, and the degree of implementation of its recommendations, especially those related to national reconciliation and linked to the resolution of the crisis in Bahrain.

As results, there was consensus for the participants on the crucial role of national reconciliation in building peace, as well as a rush towards its establishment to address the current political problem. However, the opinions on the mechanism of implementing the recommendations of the BICI report were significantly different. Although the recommendations could be considered fair, the failure of the government to implement them has been considered to be unfair which led to the dissatisfaction of the people. Also, while some considered the recommendations to be fully accomplished, others have totally rejected this claim. As for the participants in this study, the majority (70%) acknowledged that national reconciliation is the only solution to the political crisis in Bahrain.

Therefore, the statistical results are evidence of the desire of all parties to establish national reconciliation, considering it the only way out of the crisis in Bahrain.

Click here to read the paper National reconciliation in Bahrain