Khoury: “Protection and Promotion of Human Rights is a Great Responsibility borne by All”
The Chairperson of the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR), Ms. Maria Khoury, stated that she contacted the Administration of the Prisoners Reform and Rehabilitation Center in Jaw district immediately after she watched a video posted on social media on allegations of deprivation of prisoners of sleep due to the inspection of some buildings and wards at midnight and confiscation of some of their belongings in order to verify those allegations and ensure that inmates are enjoying their established rights and are not being subjected to any abuse.
In order to establish the principle of transparency and to ensure the rights and credibility, Ms. Khoury explained that the inspection took place during the day on Saturday 29th of September, not as it was posted on the social media, and stated that some of the confiscated belongings were expired drugs and a lot of prohibited materials that violate the internal regulations of the prison and its order, in addition to the confiscation of some drugs kept by a number of inmates without a prescription, stressing that she coordinated directly with the Center’s Administration to refer those inmates to doctors to consider their health status and to prescribe and dispense appropriate medications to them in compliance with the regulations and orders of the Center.
Ms. Khoury stressed that the NIHR is following-up all human rights issues at the national level independently and impartially, stating that its role is not limited to correctional institutions and places of detention only, but it also includes labor gatherings and health and educational institutions or any other public place suspected of being a site of human rights violation, in addition to the protection and promotion of woman and child’s rights.
Ms. Khoury added that the responsibility for the protection and promotion of human rights is a great one that is borne by all members of the NIHR’s Council of Commissioners, who will continue to work hard and instantly in accordance with their mandate and in compliance with the obligations of the Kingdom of Bahrain resulting from its accession to or ratification of the relevant international conventions.
