Meeting

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Committee on Detention & Facilities Visitation convened its 14^th video conference meeting under the chairpersonship of Dr. Malallah Jaffar Alhammadi and membership of Mr. Khaled Alshaer and Dr. Fawzeya Alsaleh.

The Chairperson of the Committee opened the meeting by extending his warmest thanks and appreciation to the members of the Committee for their great efforts during their visits and communication with the quarantined and isolated persons in the quarantine and isolation centres visited by them and the medical staff at those centres.  This visit reveals the NIHR’s approach with regard to its competence to conduct declared and undeclared visits to such centres especially in the conditions of the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-16) in order to ensure he exercise of various human rights that should be watched under such conditions pursuant to the Constitution as well as international conventions and instruments.

The Committee discussed all its previous resolutions and recommendations and the actions taken thereupon.  Then it continued its discussion of the mechanism of continuing the visits to correction, rehabilitation, shelter and health and social care centres and houses during this exceptions period with a view to reviewing the living, humanitarian and human rights conditions of inmates in those centres and ensuring that they enjoy their basic rights guaranteed under the constitution, domestic laws and the relevant international conventions and instruments to the fullest without any discrimination.  The Committee stated the importance of continuing its visits to those centres and listening to the inmates through modern communication and videoconference means in consideration for the exceptional conditions of the country and in compliance with the directives issued by the concerned bodies with regard to the preventive and precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) to maintain the health and safety of all, and at the same time contacting the officials of those centres to examine the various conditions of inmates and the procedures taken on appropriate solutions for their observations, if any, under the current conditions.

The Committee also stated the importance of working to find an appropriate mechanism to monitor the conditions of migrant workers in light of the current exceptional conditions, to ensure the availability of various services provided to them in general, whether by employers or by the relevant authorities, and to ensure that they enjoy all human rights enshrined in international treaties and instruments to the fullest.