NIHR continues to receive Complaints and provide Legal Aid
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The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) is continuing its relentless work to monitor human rights conditions, receive complaints, provide legal aid and monitor any allegations of human rights violations that may be received through the media and various social media. The complaints received by the NIHR during the first six months of 2020 amounted to about 32 complaints, which the NIHR dealt with in cooperation with the concerned authorities and bodies related to health affairs, housing or education, provided 348 legal aids in various civil, political, cultural, social and economic rights, and monitored nearly 85 cases in the media and social media, where appropriate legal measures were taken in their regard.
The NIHR deals honestly and openly with any complaints or aid requests received by it via the mobile phone application (NIHR Bahrain) or the toll-free hotline (80001144), and continuously conducts declared and undeclared field visits to the correction and rehabilitation centres to that male and female inmates are practicing their various religious rituals within the organizational and administrative procedures determined by the administrations of the centres. The NIHR commends the cooperation of the concerned authorities and bodies in providing an adequate number of religious books during the Ashura season this year and the provision of requirements of the rituals in line with the organizational procedures in each centre.
The NIHR stresses that the right to health and the provision of healthcare is one of the basic rights of every male and female inmate, to which the Kingdom of Bahrain attaches great importance. The NIHR has followed up the work of the Correction and Rehabilitation Centres departments in this area, where no violation or denial of medical treatment has been monitored, and the treatment plan for each inmate is based on the therapeutic and medical protocol followed for each case. The NIHR welcomes any complaints from inmates who claim lack of medical treatment, where each complaint will be dealt with directly.
The NIHR has recently monitored some allegations that the Correction and Rehabilitation Centre administration does not provide hygiene items for the inmates. However, it was found out that the items are available and additional supplies can be purchased from the centre’s store. The NIHR would like to state that some of the items that may be requested by the inmates cannot be approved for their safety in the first place. The NIHR also received a petition and requests to increase the duration of visual contact for inmates, which was recently activated as part of the work to limit the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19). Such requests were submitted during the last visit conducted by the NIHR to the Correction and Rehabilitation Centre in Jaw region. It is worth mentioning that, since the activation of visual communication, approximately 10,000 calls have been made. So, the increase of the call duration may negatively affect the available communication opportunities to all inmates, which is considered a right for all. In addition, the NIHR monitored an inmate’s complaint that he was placed in quarantine after his return from the hospital and then he was transferred to another building, while the centre’s administration reported the allocation of an entire building that contains two floors for inmates to be examined for the Coronavirus, who are being isolated as a precaution after coming from outpatient clinics in order to avoid contact. In addition, the centre’s administration is keen to run the daily program for inmates in a separate manner and considers separation of inmates in accordance with certain criteria.
The NIHR also provided the Jaw Correction and Rehabilitation Centre administration with nearly 300 cultural materials for reading to be included in the centre’s library, which has an important role in educating inmates by providing books in various fields and disciplines. The centre’s administration also encourages inmates to read, where the library is considered a centre for intellectual and cultural life of inmates, by providing the appropriate various sources of information to develop them culturally, contribute to their scientific and professional development, and urge them to exploit their free time in beneficial activities.
