NIHR Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-up Committee holds its 16th meeting
16 Aug 2016
The NIHR's Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-up Committee held its 16th meeting under the chairpersonship of Ms. Maria Khouri. The meeting was attended by Committee members Dr. Hameed Ahmed Hussein and Dr. Mona Hijris. During the meeting, the Committee examined the complaints and the requests for the assistance received by the NIHR since the last meeting of the Committee held on July 2016.
The various subjects of such complaints included claims of violating the right to personal freedom and security, the right to fair trial and the right of freedom of movement and residence. The Committee studied such complaints and communicated with the authorities concerned regarding the same. The Committee received (14) requests for assistance and legal advice.
The Committee stated that since January 2016, it has received 99 complaints; 13 complaints thereof were kept as they were deemed as resolved, 11 complaints have been kept due to the removal of the reason for violation in the same and 3 complaints have been kept due to lack of competence. The remaining complaints are being followed up whether by waiting for reply of the authorities concerned for assistance in removing the violation or for further study and examination.
On the other hand, the Committee examined developing an educational plan for the public through the cooperation of the NIHR Secretariat-General with some related authorities and coordination in order to deal with the role of the NIHR in the field of human rights protection in receiving complaints and legal assistance requests and identifying the ways available for presenting the complaints and requesting assistance.
It is worth noting that the Committee receives complaints and the assistance requests that are included in its competence including individual or collective complaints involving the human rights violations, providing that such violation is committed by an official authority or an authority related to it or that violation occurred inside or outside the territorial borders of the Kingdom of Bahrain as long as the authority that has committed the violation is an official authority affiliated to the Kingdom. This also includes the complaints accepted by the NIHR for specific considerations, such as complaints that represent public opinion or collective violation. The Committee is at the NIHR headquarters in the Seef district and can be contacted via its website www.nihr.org.bh, Tel. 17111666 or smart phone application from any place NIHR Bahrain.
