Meeting

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-up Committee held its 18th regular meeting under the chairpersonship of Ms. Maria Khouri. The meeting was attended by Dr. Hameed Hussein and Dr. Mona Hijris. The meeting reviewed all the complaints and requests for assistance received by the NIHR since the previous meeting in September 2016, including 10 complaints covering various subject-matters including the right to freedom of movement and residence, allegation of deprivation of health care and treatment and allegation of deprivation of the right to housing service. All were all studied, assessed and verified as per the Committee’s jurisdiction to be communicated to the authorities concerned.  The Committee also received 12 requests for assistance and legal advice.

It is worth noting that since January 2016 the Committee has received 125 complaints, 44 of those were closed as result was achieved therein, 15 were closed for the elimination of the case of violation therein, 4 were closed for lack of jurisdiction and the remaining complaints are still either pending response of the bodies concerned or cooperation received resulting in the elimination of the case of violation of cases are referred for further research and study.

The Committee previously requested the Secretary-General to prepare a proposal of an educational program to expand and increase awareness of the role undertaken by the NIHR in the field of human rights protection, especially in the field of receiving complaints and ways to deal with them.  The Committee reviewed the proposal and made some amendments in order to access the largest segment of society to spread the culture of human rights in Bahrain to be a lifestyle based on mutual respect.  The NIHR is hoped to implement the draft project in cooperation with a number of relevant bodies.

The Committee further reviewed with great interest other proposals and projects related to the provision of services that fall within the NIHR’s jurisdiction with relevant bodies and various ministries and authorities of the state, for such projects to be a general framework organizing bonds of coordination and mutual cooperation between the NIHR and other bodies relevant to human rights.

The Committee can be contacted at the NIHR’s headquarters in the Seef District.  NIHR’s website is www.nihr.org.bh. Contact number: 17111666 or use the NIHR Bahrain smartphone application anywhere.