High Level briefing on Partnership to Strengthen Support to National Human Rights Institutions

A complementary approach to working across the UN Charter for Agenda 2030

Human Rights Council 34th Session

Remarks by Kate Gilmore, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights

27 February 2017

Your Excellency, Mr. Manuel González Sanz, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica
Madame Helen Clark, Administrator of UNDP,
Professor Doctor Beate Rudolf, Chairwoman of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions,
Ambassador Suraya Dalil, Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Excellencies, Friends,

It is a privilege to participate in this High Level briefing today. It is an honor to do so in the company of key partners and on the very first day of this year’s global discussions on human rights.  Our particular thanks must go to the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) that have contributed to the organisation of this event.

 As you have heard, it is a tripartite partnership that supports the work of the NHRIs as they discharge their important mandates at the domestic and international level.

The fruit of the partnership that we affirm here is evidenced in the 107 NHRIs that today enjoy accreditation through GANHRI, out of which close to two thirds (74) are recognized as operating in full compliance with the Paris Principles (A status), apparent in the fact that NHRIs are growing in number and in reach and demonstrated by the broadening of the spaces in which NHRIs are engaging meaningfully to contribute to decision making processes at the domestic and international level.

Please allow me to briefly describe the role that we as the UN Human rights office plays in this partnership as we seek to support NHRIs across a range of normative, partnership and protection functions.

We are proud of course to assist with secretariat support to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), its Bureau and Sub-Committee on Accreditation while our more than 60 field presences provide technical support and advisory services to NHRIs to assist with capacity building and in support of the relevant institutions’ priorities.

We support NHRIs by, for example, calling on governments to involve NHRIs as National Human Rights Actions Plans are prepared, in the course of their national mechanisms for human rights reporting and follow-up, and when coordinating and preparing reports before regional and international human rights mechanisms such as the Treaty Bodies, the Universal Periodic Review and Special procedures.  And we encourage NHRIs to convene inclusive and robust dialogues on their country’s human rights situation when preparing their annual reports to their Parliaments.

At the international level, we work with GANHRI and NHRIs to facilitate engagement with UN intergovernmental bodies.  For example, by expanding the interaction of “A” status institutions in the Human Rights Council, helping to open space for their engagement in the UPR process, there now being a chapter in the stakeholders’ report attributed to input provided by “A” status NHRIs; and, by helping secure NHRIs’ speaking rights after the relevant government at the adoption of the UPR report, and the same speaking rights during special procedures’ presentation of country visit reports.

Most recently, we have been able to support an opening up of new spaces in the deliberations of the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing in New York.

As a result, the critical role that strong NHRIs play is being better appreciated by a broader range of actors who progressively are valuing the contributions of NHRIs that carry out their mandates with independence, integrity, and impartiality including even when social tensions arise, and during conflict and post conflict situations.

However, increased demand for their contribution and challenges to their impartiality and independence mean many NHRIs are operating under considerable pressure – a strain made more intense by the fact that many face funding constraints and lack the necessary institutional support for a full discharge of their mandates.

Recognizing this and appreciating the importance of NHRIs, specifically in an era when global values are the subject of contest and contradiction, the UN Human Rights Office,  UNDP and GANHRI understand that our Partnership priorities - in support of NHRIs - must be focused on strengthening the capacity of NHRIs; on enhancing the role of NHRIs as accountability mechanisms; on better showcasing of the value, relevance and impact of NHRIs; on strong and targeted support to NHRIs facing threats and suffering reprisals.  We are continuing to work too for NHRIs’ greater participation and visibility at international level and institutional strengthening of GANHRI and its regional networks.

Excellencies, friends,

NHRIs have a fundamental role to play in securing more sustainable and inclusive peace.  They are a critical means for leveraging more transparent and accountable institutions; they are a gift to our shared efforts to enable greater space for pluralistic dialogue and they can enrich the ground on which social justice and inclusion may better flourish.  This role is affirmed in Sustainable Development Goal 16 “Realisation of peace, justice and strong institutions” one of whose universally accepted indicator of achievement is the existence of independent national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles.

At the heart of this work to better nationalise access to rights based processes and reviews; to better absorb the aspirations of local voices, to better reflect their experiences and to better incorporate their claims into both national and international rights-based system, are the interests and dignity of people, of  “We the people” as the UN Charter recalls.   Please do help us – help us to enhance and strengthen this partnership and the network of NHRIs it supports – this is a practical, achievable, proven and dynamic way to produce tangible and measurable impact for the people to whom we owe our deepest accountability – those who are deprived of their rights, those who are denied their rights, those who want merely to claim their rights.

Thank you.