Meeting

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Council of Commissioners has convened its 16^th regular meeting via teleconference under the chairpersonship of Ms. Maria Khoury.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Board listened to a brief about the work of the NIHR’s permanent committees, presented by Head of the NIHR’s Committee on Public Rights and Freedoms and Head of the NIHR’s Committee on People with Restricted Freedoms.  In addition, a member of the NIHR’s Committee on Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-up presented a brief on the complaints received by the NIHR, the legal aids provided, the cases monitored via the media and social media, trial hearings attended and the actions taken thereupon. 

In a related context, the Council praised the rapid and positive cooperation shown by the concerned parties in the Supreme Judicial Council towards the violations monitored by the NIHR, represented by the failure of some of the court’s staff and visitors to abide by the precautionary actions and preventive measures issued by the competent authorities in the country to combat the outbreak of the emerging Coronavirus (Covid-19), where the NIHR is exercising its oversight role in attending court hearings to determine their course and ensure the necessary legal guarantees for a fair trial.

The Council reviewed the NIHR’s efforts to continue its media activity during the crisis of the emerging Coronavirus (Covid-19), and also considered the possibility of coordination to prepare a number of short videos aimed at spreading educational thought and educating children about the importance of preserving the environment and protecting them from employment and exploitation of all forms.

In this context, the Chairman of the NIHR stated that the NIHR shall continue to exercise the competencies entrusted to it pursuant to its Establishment Law in developing of the human rights work in the Kingdom of Bahrain, protecting human rights of all kinds, including civil, political, economic, cultural and social human rights, disseminating a culture of human rights in the society, strengthening the community awareness of those rights and cooperating with other authorities regarding violations that may occur, through the inclusion of a number of training programs and events in the NIHR training plan this year, which aim at spreading the culture of human interaction between employers and their laborers and employees, especially expatriate ones.

The Council reviewed NIHR Capacity Assessment, which is voluntarily undertaken by the Asia-Pacific Forum (APF), and then discussed the course of a number of NIHR’s declared and undeclared visits recently conducted to a number of places, including a number of correction and rehabilitation centres, which aimed to determine the extent of the access to human rights therein.  The Council concluded its meeting by discussing the NIHR’s recent participation in regional and international forums.