Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Dr Ali bin Samikh al-Marri  has stressed the need to provide a democratic climate and fundamental freedoms of citizens to ensure holding free and fair elections, noting that the Arab region has suffered from phony elections and democracy over many decades, which negatively affected the human rights situation as a whole.  
Addressing a workshop on the role of national human rights institutions, organised in Amman by the Arab Network for  National Human Rights Institutions (ANNHRI), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr al-Mari stressed the positive participation of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in the electoral process which would assist governments to fulfil their commitments to hold free and fair elections.
In this context, al-Marri stressed the importance of promoting the harmonising laws, national practices of standards and relevant international principles, educating voters and candidates and monitoring the electoral process.
NHRC chairman said that democracy provides a necessary natural environment to protect human rights and implement them in an efficient way, noting that elections are considered as a cornerstone of the democratic process and a very important and essential step that leads to the democratisation of societies and gives the citizen the right to participate in the governance of the country.