Meeting

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Committee on General Rights and Freedoms convened its 7^th regular meeting under the chairpersonship of Dr. Bader Mohamed Adel and membership of Mr. Ahmed Mahdi Alhaddad and Mrs. Wedad Radhi Almoosawi at the NIHR’s headquarters in Seef district.

Pursuant to the mandate of the NIHR established by the provisions of its Incorporation Law No. (26) of 2014, as modified by Decree-Law No. (20) of 2016, especially Article (12-b), which stipulates that “The NIHR shall be entitled to study the legislation and regulations in-force in the Kingdom of Bahrain relating to human rights, to recommend any amendments it deems appropriate, especially with regard to the consistency of such legislation with Bahrain’s international human rights commitments, and to recommend the promulgation of new legislation related to human rights”, the Committee has discussed NIHR’s proposal on the possibility of modifying the scope and duration of the afternoon work ban as stated in the Ministerial Resolution No. (3) of 2013 promulgated by the Minister of Labor and Social Development, which aims to ban the employment of workers, whose nature of work requires them to work in the sunlight and in open areas, at the time from 12:00 pm to 04:00 pm during July and August, where the Committee has adopted the proposal and will send it to the competent authorities.

The Committee also completed its discussions on what the NIHR could to in order to promote the global campaign on “The Ten Principles of My Protection, Welfare and Development as a Girl, Boy or Teenager with Disabilities”, at the request of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Disabilities sent to the national human rights institutions to participate in this campaign, which aims to eliminate all forms of ill-treatment of that group.

The Committee commended the media campaign that is currently made by the NIHR to promote those principles via its social media.  Members have made some suggestions to promote those principles by holding campaigns with third parties in order to increase community awareness of the rights of this group.  It was agreed to give members more time to study this matter and to submit their proposals at the next Committee meeting.

The Committee concluded its meeting by discussing what has been done on its previous resolutions and recommendations and the actions taken thereon.