Sunday’s dialogue to discuss consensus

The dialogue sessions are set to resume today (Sunday) covering its political, economic, rights, and social themes through examining consensus on visions presented earlier by participants in the dialogue. the percentage of consensus in the political theme on visions relating to political societies stood at 69%, while it reached 96% under the economic theme on visions of ways to boost the economic competitiveness. consensus in the social theme on visions related to civil society institutions reached 100%, and on visions on the rights of women, children and people with special needs under the rights theme the consensus amounted to 72%. It is scheduled to discuss consensus on visions presented by the participants to bridge the views, where the political theme session will address visions on the sub-theme of the powers of the shura and representatives councils, including the powers of legislative, regulatory , and mechanisms of legislation and oversight, as well as the relationship between the two houses. the political theme meeting on Thursday reviewed the political societies visions and topics related to the development of the conditions of establishment, and to keep sectarianism away from political action, as well as the advantages and obstacles in light of the current law of political societies, and the key issues for the development of political societies, its funding and foreign communication, where the convergence of consensus by the participants reached 69% on 11 visions, while it was lacking on five other visions in this regard. under the economic theme, consensus will be discussed this evening on the sub-theme of government services. visions listed under the level of government services are scheduled to cover areas related to solutions and alternatives proposed to abolish the services fees, consumer protection, the need for a corporate tax system and VAT, the social responsibility of companies, pension schemes, housing challenges and the role of the private sector in addressing this problem, evaluating and reviewing health services, mandatory health insurance, ways to tackle environmental challenges, and the development of education. meanwhile, consensus by participants during the past session on issues under the sub-theme of the promotion of economic competitiveness came to a rate of 96% as participants agreed on 49 visions, while they decided to defer action on 30 other visions did not agree on two. visions listed under this sub-theme focused on examining the impact of the financial crisis on the economy, competitiveness in Bahrain both regionally and globally, diversifying sources of national income, real estate, and development of the tourism sector. as for the rights theme, panellists are to discuss in Sunday’s session the sub-theme on the judiciary, the subsequent guarantees of the independence of the judiciary, the development of litigation procedures, the development of implementation mechanisms, and the development of judicial inspection standards. participants in the sessions of the rights theme discussed in its last session a review of consensus on visions relating to the rights of women, children and people with special needs, including the advantages of the issuance of the family law, the factors impeding its issuance, the reality and challenges of Bahraini women, children's rights in the kingdom of Bahrain, the politicisation of children in Bahrain, its causes and ways to eliminate it, the reality and challenges of people with special needs, and the development of care for people with special needs. the participants agreed on the majority of the 21 visions of that meeting, while conditionally agreed on the family law article and the related visions. the participants did not accord on 8 visions, bringing the percentage of consensus on this theme to 72%. on the same level, participants in the social theme will examine the sub-theme on the civil society institutions, by reviewing draft visions on key items including: symptoms of breaching security and civil peace and the reasons behind this breach, mechanisms to deal with the breach and the civil peace, community partnership on security, ways to apply the rule of law, and peaceful coexistence between different sects, religious discourse, control over microphones in places of worship, the organisation of religious processions, construction of houses of worship, and dealing with entities operating outside the law. participants in this theme have achieved 100% consensus in last Thursday’s session, represented by 40 visions related to the sub-theme on the civil society institutions. topics under the sub-theme of civil society institutions, covered articles related to the advantages and constraints of working according to the current law of institutions, sectarianism in civil society institutions, development of conditions for establishing civil society institutions, the criteria for joining the institutions and overlapping membership, key issues for the development of activities of civil society institutions, institutions funding, ways to better control the commitment of NGOs to national laws, outreach to civil society organisations, and the number of civil society institutions.