HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS FROM 71 COUNTRIES TO ATTEND NAIROBI CONFERENCE FOCUSED ON ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

17 October 2008

More than 150 delegates representing national human rights institutions from 71 countries will take part in a conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi from 22 to 24 October to review best practices and lessons learned in the field of administration of justice, with a special focus on their relationship with the judiciary, police and prison administrations.

National human rights institutions are special administrative bodies set up to protect or promote human rights. In all, 62 have so far been assessed to conform to the ‘Paris Principles,’ the internationally accepted standards designed to assure their independence and integrity, as well as guide the nature and quality of their work.

The Nairobi conference, which will be opened by UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang, will focus on the roles of national human rights institutions at both national and regional levels in relation to the judiciary, law enforcement and monitoring of detention centres. The institutions will also report on activities undertaken in relation to an initiative focusing on the dignity and justice of detainees, which was launched by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as an integral part of the campaign to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December.

A declaration, providing additional guidance on the role national human rights institutions can play on issues related to the rule of law and administration of justice, is expected to be adopted at the end of the Nairobi conference.

The conference will be hosted by the Government of Kenya, and has been organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in cooperation with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency and the United Nations Development Programme.

It will be preceded by a workshop on the Universal Periodic Review (a new Human Rights Council process under which all 192 UN Member States have their human rights record reviewed every four years), and an NGO Forum which over 100 NGOs are expected to attend. The latter will focus on forging a strategic partnership between NGOs and national human rights institutions with the aim of improving access to justice for vulnerable groups.

The conference will be followed on 25-26 October by a seminar on internal displacement, organized by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement.

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For use of the information media; not an official record