5. The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)8 5.1 Since there was an urgent need to deal responsibly with human rights issues and set policies related to the promotion, development and protection of human rights in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Law No. (26) of 2014 was issued to establish the NIHR. 5.2 In order to achieve its objectives and to reach the desired results for the promotion and protection of human rights, the NIHR has a number of specializations that can be summarized as follows: • Receiving complaints related to human rights, studying and researching them, and referring what it considers to be referred to the competent authorities with effective follow-up, or informing those concerned of the procedures that must be followed and assisting them in taking them, or assisting in settling them with the concerned authorities. • Monitoring cases of human rights violations, conducting the necessary investigation, and conducting field visits in accordance with the procedures followed to monitor human rights conditions in any place suspected of being the subject of human rights violations. • Studying the legislation and systems in force in the Kingdom related to human rights and recommending the amendments it deems appropriate, and examining the appropriateness of legislative and regulatory texts in regional and international treaties concerned with human rights issues. • Issuing pamphlets, publications, statements and special reports, and displaying them on its own website, and it may address public opinion directly or through any of the media. • Holding conferences, organizing seminars and educational and training courses in the field of human rights, and conducting research and studies in this regard. • Cooperate with national bodies, regional and international organizations, and bodies specialized in cultural, information and education affairs. • Participate in the development and implementation of a national plan for the promotion and protection of human rights at the level of the Kingdom. • Submitting parallel reports, and contributing to drafting and discussing reports that the Kingdom undertakes to submit periodically and expressing observations on them, in implementation of regional and international agreements on human rights. 8 For more detailed information about the National Institution for Human Rights in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the efforts and activities undertaken by it, its organizational structure and terms of reference for the work of its permanent quality committees, please review the official website of the institution at the following link: https://www.nihr.org.bh/ 4