Second Annual Report of the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) 2014 - Kingdom of Bahrain with Disabilities requires the State Parties to establish independent national monitoring mechanisms to promote and safeguard the provisions of this Convention and monitor their implementation. 28. Accordingly, SCA confirmed that it is permissible for national human rights institutions to have national preventive mechanisms (NPM) or national monitoring mechanisms, on the condition that this mandate is provided for in the legislation under which the institution is established, and that it is exercised in real and actual terms in order to achieve the purpose of the international instrument61. 29. Article 12 of Law No. 26 of 2014 grants NIHR a general mandate for the promotion and protection of human rights by authorizing it to conduct field visits in accordance with the applicable principles in order to monitor human rights situation in any place where human rights violations are suspected, particularly, in reform institutes, detention centers, labor gatherings, and health centers. It is further grants it the mandate to monitor violation of human rights instances, conduct the necessary investigation, draw the attention of the competent authorities and provide them with proposals on initiatives to put an end to such violations and, where necessary, to express an opinion on the reactions and positions of the competent authorities. 30. However, according to SCA General Observations, the mandate granted to NIHR may not be regarded as a national preventive mechanism (NPM). This is because there is an institutional structure in the Kingdom represented by the “Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission” established under Decree No. 61 of 2013 Establishing and Determining the Mandates of the Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission. 31. With reference to the aforementioned Decree, it is evident that the Commission is awarded several mandates represented in visiting inmates in prisons, detention centres, juvenile and detainee care centres and other places in which persons may be detained such as hospitals and mental health clinics, identifying their detention and treatment conditions, visiting the places where these detainees may be held in order to verify satisfaction of international standards, conducting interviews and talking freely with inmates in places of detention and other concerned persons in order to understand the nature and importance of their problems, and to inform the competent authorities of cases of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which may be revealed to detected by the Commission, and making recommendations and suggestions to the competent authorities for the improvement of the conditions of inmates and the treatment they receive. 32. With regard to national monitoring mechanisms, NIHR plays a prominent role in this regard, because it is an institutional structure which is awarded a general mandate by its enabling law to consider all the issues relevant to the promotion and protection of the various human rights. In addition, it has an actual partnership with civil society organizations in the field of monitoring the human rights situation. It is further awarded by its enabling law the mandate to monitor cases of human rights violations, conduct the necessary investigation, draw the attention of the competent authorities to these violations, submit proposals that relate to the initiatives to put an end to such situations, and, where necessary, to express an opinion on the reactions and positions of the competent authorities. 61 General Observation (2 - 9) Assessing National Human Rights Institutions as National Preventive and National Monitoring Mechanisms, p. 135. 41