Origin and Development of National Human Rights Institutes: Global Overview

Evolution and Impact of National Human Rights Institutes

Abstract

The United Nations embarked on an effort to find procedures that may aid it in successfully fulfilling its aim of human rights protection and promotion. However, it was in 1946 that the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) requested that Member States consider the desirability of establishing information groups or local Human Rights Committees within their respective countries to collaborate with them in furthering the work of the Commission on Human Rights.[1] In 1960, the ECOSOC recognised the distinct role that National Institutions could play in the protection and promotion of Human Rights through a resolution, and invited governments to encourage the formation and continuation of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in their respective countries. Later, in September 1978, the Commission on Human Rights convened a seminar in Geneva to develop a set of principles for the roles that NHRIs may perform. These rules have been adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations General Assembly.[2] Since 1980, the United Nations has taken measures to actively participate in the project of creating NHRIs. The Secretary General of the United Nations prepared a series of reports on the subject, and his efforts culminated in a Workshop by the Commission on Human Rights in 1990 with the goal of reviewing patterns of cooperation between National and International Institutions and examining the factors that could result in improving the effectiveness of NHRIs. The outcome of this Workshop's deliberations is known as the Paris Principles of 1.991. In 1992, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights endorsed these. The importance of NHRIs was also acknowledged in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action issued at the conclusion of the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. The United Nations General Assembly supported the same in its resolution 48A134 of December 20, 1993. The Paris Principles give extensive advice and direction not just for the establishment of NHRIs, but also for the functions and principles that NHRIs must follow in order to function successfully.