Meeting

The NIHR's Economic, Social & Cultural Rights Committee held its 10th ordinary meeting at NIHR's headquarter in the Seef District under the chairpersonship of Mr. Farid Ghazi and membership of Dr. Abdurrahman Gawahri and Dr. Jameela Al Samak.

The Committee reviewed a study prepared by the Secretary General on abolishing Government's subsidy for some services rendered by Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the impact thereof on the living standard of individuals.

The committee indicated  that abolishing Government's subsidy will increase the level of poverty instead of improving the living standard of the citizens. In addition, economists confirmed the negative implications for the society as result of economic inflation, which is considered more serious than unemployment as well as the impact thereof on individuals on limited income, for whom the State has an obligation to provide them with a decent living standard to achieve human dignity for them.

On the other hand, the Committee discussed the proposal of amending some provisions of Law No. (47) of 2006 on care, rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons that included  the amendment of the stipulation of the second paragraph of article (21) of the same Law that stipulated the augmentation of the sanction against those who commit the negligence act that leads to the death of the disabled person. The Committee entrusted the NIHR's Secretary General with preparing its opinion on such amendment.

It is worth-mentioning that the Economic Committee is one of NIHR's Specific Permanent Committees  tasked with giving opinion on the issues related to economic, social and cultural human rights, evaluating the tangible progress in practicing these rights within the Kingdom, following up the on the issues of public opinion and the related media programs, studying the economic situations within the Kingdom in terms of the level of income and prices, evaluating the curricula and giving consultative opinion on such curricula for improving the same in accordance with international standards. The Committee is also  charged with following up on international agreements and covenants related thereto, including recommendations related to acceding to international agreements and covenants related to the economic, social and cultural rights and reviewing the reservations entered by the Kingdom on some stipulations of the covenants the Kingdom had acceded thereto previously. In addition, this Committee is concerned with
studying the legislations and statutes applicable within the Kingdom and related to economic, social and cultural rights with a view of developing them in way that ensures raising economic, social and cultural levels of the citizens and giving its opinion whether such legislations and statues are in conformity with the HR international standards or not. The Economic Committee is also tasked with recommending new legislations related to human rights and participating in preparing draft parallel reports that shall be presented by the Kingdom periodically.