Meeting

The Cultural, Social, and Economic Rights Committee of the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) held its fifteenth regular meeting at the NIHR's headquarters in the Seef district under the chairmanship of His Excellency Mr. Farid Ghazi in the presence of His Excellency Dr. Abdulrahman Jawahery and Her Excellency Dr. Jameela Al-Sammak,

Within the framework of activating the Committee’s work, the plan to prepare a parallel report on the status  of cultural, social, and economic rights and practices was discussed, so that the status of such rights becomes a part of the parallel report that the NIHR is to present during the periodic review of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national report during the third round of session (27) of the Universal Periodic Review Process (URP) before the Human Rights Council. This proposal activates Clause (H) of Article (12) of Law No. (26) of the year 2014 on establishing the NIHR, which stipulates that in order to achieve its goals, the NIHR should present parallel reports, and participate in the formulations and discussions surrounding the reports which the Kingdom undertakes to submit periodically, as well as make remarks and publish the reports in the media, in line with regional and international human rights treaties.

On another note, the Committee discussed the right to healthcare, considering it one of the most important social rights guaranteed by and stipulated in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain in Article (8). The Committee commended the efforts undertaken by the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the provision of health services to the citizens and residents of the Kingdom. It stressed that the National Health Insurance System expected to be applied should not affect the rights of citizens, particularly access to free health services for which the state is responsible.

It is noteworthy that the Economic Rights Committee is one of the specific standing committees at the NIHR, specializing in offering advice on issues that pertain to cultural, social, and economic rights, as well as following-up on relevant public opinion and media issues and concerns, not to mention studying the economic conditions in the Kingdom in terms of income and prices.

The Committee’s responsibilities also include the evaluation of educational curricula and the provision of remarks for their development in accordance with international standards, as well as monitoring the implementation of relevant conventions and treaties, in addition to reviewing any reservations entered by the Kingdom on the texts of conventions the Kingdom had previously acceded to.