NIHR’s Committee on Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-up convenes its 19th Regular Meeting by Teleconference
28 Oct 2020
The National institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Committee on Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-up convened its 19th regular monthly meeting by teleconference under the chairpersonship of Ms. Maria Khoury and membership of Dr. Hameed Husain, Mr. Ammar Albannai and Mrs. Rawdha Alaradi. The Committee opened its meeting by appreciating the positive and serious cooperation shown by the concerned staff in the Ministry of Interior with the Committee in order to validate the allegations monitored on the quality of food provided to inmates in the Correction and Rehabilitation Center in terms of lack of variety and inadequate amount. The Committee stated that it would communicate with the concerned staff in the Ministry of Interior to achieve satisfactory results for all parties in terms of the quality of presented food, based upon the NIHR’s consistent approach to promote and protect human rights, and in accordance with the high royal trust.
On the other hand, the Committee stated its keenness to continue following up on its letters dispatched to the concerned staff in the Ministry of Housing with a view to activating joint cooperation between the two parties, examining the pending cases before the Committee relating to the right to an adequate standard of living and finding out appropriate and final solutions.
During the meeting, the Committee reviewed the complaints received, legal aid offered and cases monitored via the media and social media from 27 September to 2 October this year, where it addressed (3) complaints, offered (40) legal aids, monitored (4) cases via the media and social media and received (127) calls via the NIHR toll-free hotline during the said period and discussed the actions taken thereupon.
The Committee discussed a number of new cases received by it relating to the application of the provisions of the Law no. (18) of 2017 on Alternative Sanctions and Measures, where it examined the extent to which such cases fulfilled the formal requirements stipulated in Article (13) of the aforesaid law on completing half the sentence duration and paying the fines, if any, unless their fulfillment is impossible. It was decided to prepare quarterly lists that include new cases applying to the Committee for replacing the remaining sentence period and to leave the substantive conditions relating to good conduct and extent of threaten to public security to the discretion of the concerned bodies. The Committee intends to communicate with the concerned bodies with the aim to coordinate with them on these applications on a quarterly basis.
On the other side, a complaint was filed by a citizen against the management of a health club who published promotional advertisements on social media platforms containing statements of discrimination based on color, gender and others. The Committee stated that such type of ads published by the club as advertising promotion fall within the scope of violations of human rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the relevant laws, whereby their perpetrators are criminalized.
The Committee also discussed an allegation of a parent of a student with special needs on the issuance of a decision by the Special Education Department of the Ministry of Education aiming at suspending the admission of students with special needs in private schools. The authority has not responded yet.
The Committee concluded its meeting by discussing the coordination of visits by a number of representatives of the diplomatic missions of European Union accredited to the Kingdom of Bahrain to the correction and rehabilitation centres in order to examine the human rights conditions therein and ensure that all inmates practice their various rights guaranteed by the Constitution, national laws and the relevant international and regional instruments.
