MUSCAT (AFP) -– The sultanate of Oman has established its first-ever human rights commission, becoming the last of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states to set up such a body, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

Oman's ruler Sultan Qaboos issued a royal decree on Sunday ordering the establishment of the commission, the daily said.
""The National Commission for Human Rights reflects ... Sultan Qaboos's keenness to represent the private and public sector and to protect human rights and freedoms in the sultanate,"" the chairman of Oman's state council, Yahia al-Mantheri, told the official news agency ONA.
According to Mantheri, the commission will be an autonomous legal apparatus.
Oman is the last of the six countries of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) to form a human rights body.
International rights groups have criticized the rights record of Oman, where any negative comment about the authorities is considered heresy and the media are strictly controlled.
However, London-based Amnesty International said in its 2007 report that the Gulf state has seen a very gradual opening of the political process in recent years, including the participation of women.
Migrant workers, meanwhile, complain of discrimination and violence at the hands of employers and lack of freedom of movement.
New York-based Human Rights Watch earlier this year urged the six GCC states to endorse the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers.
The convention guarantees basic human rights to all migrants, including the rights to life, due process, fair trials, and freedom of expression and religion, as well as equal treatment with nationals in respect to economic and social rights.