Section II: The advisory opinions submitted by the NIHR to the Council of Ministers (the executive branch) 1. The NIHR believes that the role it is entrusted with in the promotion and protection of human rights cannot be complete except with true partnership with the public authorities in the State, especially the executive branch represented by the Council of Ministers. This completeness is, perhaps, due to the power entrusted to the government in formulating proposals of laws referred to it by the Council of Representatives or the Shura Council, to be formulated in the constitutional instruments prescribed as bills; or in referring the proposals first to the two councils as bills put forward by the government. Accordingly, the NIHR, and within the timeframe of this report, has referred to the Council of Ministers (the government) one advisory opinion on amending the provision of paragraph (2) of article No. (21) of Law No. (74) of 2006 on the welfare, rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. 2. T  he NIHR submitted a proposal on amending the text of paragraph (2) of article No. (21) of Law No. (74) of 2006 on the welfare, rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. The NIHR made it clear in its advisory opinion that article No. (7) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Kingdom of Bahrain acceded to under law No. (56) of 2006, stipulates that: “No one shall be subjected to torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment...”. 3. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has the power of the law, and was ratified by Law No. (22) of 2011, pointed in the second paragraph of article No. (15) of the Convention that: “States Parties shall take all effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent persons with disabilities, on an equal basis with others, from being subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”; and article No. (17) of the same Convention stipulated that: “Every person with disabilities has a right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity on an equal basis with others”. 4. The NIHR appreciates the efforts being made by the legislative authority to provide a higher degree of care to people with disabilities. Such care is not a case of inequality; rather it is a positive discrimination for a particular category of persons who have the right to special care to ensure that their rights are protected against violation. This is shown in the provision of paragraph four of article No. (5) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that: “Specific measures which are necessary to accelerate or achieve de facto equality of persons with disabilities shall not be considered discrimination under the terms of the present Convention”. However, there are several observations that the NIHR have reported in its views. 34