National Institution for Human Rights – Kingdom of Bahrain STANDING QUALITY COMMITTEES: 4. Back to the provisions of the Royal Decree on the Establishment of NIHR, Article 7 of this Decree provides for the formation of standing committees of NIHR members to exercise their mandates, as indicated in the Executive Regulation. Each committee is chaired by a member of the National Institution. Based on the resolution taken during the first procedural meeting of the Council of Commissioners, NIHR Standing Committees have been designated as follows: Complaints, Monitoring and FollowUp Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Abdullah Ahmed Issa Al-Derazi, and the membership of Mr. Ahmed Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al-Saati, Ms. Maria Antoine Elias Khoury; Civil and Political Rights Committee, under the chairmanship of Ms. Jamila Ali Salman Nassif, and the membership of Mr. Farid Ghazi Jassim Rafee, and Mr. Abdul Jabbar Ahmed Qareeb Allah, and finally the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. Fouzia Saeed Abdullah Saleh, and the membership of Dr. May Sulaiman Mohammed Al-Otaibi, and Mr. Ahmed Abdul Jabbar Ahmed Qareeb Allah Tayeb. 5. The Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-Up Committee receives complaints and grievances of citizens, residents, and bodies in various ways; considers, classifies and identifies the best ways to deal with the complaints; verifies and documents the complaints; and refers the complaints that have been approved to the competent authorities through NIHR Chairman. The Committee follows up the complaints effectively; informs the concerned citizens and residents of the procedures to be followed in case of complaints; provides them with assistance on such complaints, or assist them to settle these complaints with the concerned authorities in coordination with the Complaints Unit of the Secretariat; considers and monitors the reality of human rights and practice in the Kingdom of Bahrain; monitors, records and organizes information on these rights; and prepares reports containing data and indicators about violations of human rights and submits these reports to the Council of Commissioners for consideration and taking the necessary decisions. The Committee further prepares the draft annual report on the number of complaints received by NIHR with detailed data on the action taken on these complaints; provides comments and makes recommendations on the relevant national legislation to the Council of Commissioners; and conducts field visits to detention centers, and other places where human rights violations are likely to occur, in coordination with the chairman of the Institution and the Secretariat. The Committee carries out any other mandates referred to it by the chairman of the Institution or the Council of Commissioners. Since it was formed, the Complaints, Monitoring and Follow-Up Committee held ten ordinary regular meeting during the period from February to December of 2013. 6. The function of the Civil and Political Rights Committee is to prepare reports and recommendations to NIHR Council of Commissioners on anything that would protect and foster civil and political human rights, and submits these reports and recommendations to the competent authorities. The Committee expresses its opinion on the issues related to civil and political human rights referred to it or brought to it by the chairman of the Institution; reviews the legal safeguards for the exercise of civil and political rights; proposes appropriate recommendations; monitors the implementation of relevant international conventions and treaties; makes the necessary proposals, recommendations and observations necessary for the sound application of these treaties; and submits them to the Council of Commissioners of the National Institution; expresses its opinion on the accession of the Kingdom of Bahrain to civil and political rights conventions; reviews the Kingdom of Bahrain reservations on some provisions of the conventions to which it has acceded; monitors the implementation of international conventions and treaties relating to all 15