Meeting

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Committee on Visiting Detention Places and Facilities has convened its 22^nd meeting via teleconference, under the chairpersonship of Dr. Malallah Al-Hammadi and membership of Mr. Khaled Abdulaziz Al’Sha’er, Dr. Fawzeya Al-Saleh and Mrs. Deena Alladhi.

The Committee opened its meeting by reviewing all its previous resolutions and recommendations and the actions taken thereupon, especially those related to the field visits conducted by the Committee to the correction and rehabilitation centres, places of detention and arrest, health and social care centres and expatriate workers accommodations for some private companies.

The Committee reviewed the course of its recent field visits to a shelter and deportation centre for foreign women, following a previous infection with the Coronavirus (Covid-19), in order to ensure the continuity of adherence to precautionary measures, as well as the inmates’ access to their various rights guaranteed by the Constitution, national legislation and regional and international instruments related to human rights, where the Committee expressed its satisfaction after the visit, especially after the meetings held with some of the inmates, who expressed their confidence in the measures taken, while most of them are waiting for travel facilities related to their countries.

The Committee also discussed its visit to Al-Matrook Conductive Rehabilitation Centre, which was held to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities, and to stand up on the precautionary measures taken to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus (Covild-19), as well as its recent visit to the accommodation building of the Expatriate Workers Protection and Support Centre of the Labor Market Regulatory Authority.

On the other hand, the Committee conducted a field visit to the remand centre following a notification received by the NIHR from the Ministry of Interior of a death case of one of the detainees in the centre, in order to ensure the extent of the precautions and measures taken to protect the detainees and maintain their rights, safety and security in accordance with the relevant international and regional standards.  The Committee also conducted a visit to the Correction and Rehabilitation Centre for men, following a case monitored via the social media on one of the inmates, in order to stand up on the validity of allegations regarding his inability to communicate with his family.  The Committee discovered that he was enjoying all his rights and that his lack of communication with his family was due to his personal lack of desire, despite the accessibility of audio and visual means of communication for him and the other inmates.