PAGE 09
HAVE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS REACHED THEIR USE-BY DATE? CHRIS SIDOTI Chris Sidoti has worked in and with national human rights institutions for the past 35 years. He was the first Executive Director of the Australian Human Rights Commission and later Australian Human Rights Commissioner. He was also worked with United Nations mechanisms, most recently as an Expert Member of the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.
IN THE BEGINNING
Thirty years ago, when the Human Rights Defender was born, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) were emerging as one of the great hopes for significant progress in the implementation of international human rights law. NHRIs are official, independent legal institutions established by the State and exercising the powers of the State to promote and protect human rights.1 International human rights lawmaking was already very well advanced by 1991 and it was apparent that the greatest challenge was not lawmaking but implementation. There was a yawning gap between the fine promises of the law and the actual enjoyment of human rights on the ground. Under the law, States were responsible for ensuring the human rights of all persons within their jurisdiction. International law and international mechanisms were no substitute for domestic responsibility and domestic accountability. NHRIs were developed as a principal mechanism for domestic implementation of these international obligations. That period, 30 years ago, was a critical one for the development of NHRIs. The first independent NHRIs had been established in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. By the early 1990s there were about 20 of them claiming to be independent. The UN sponsored the first gathering of NHRIs in Paris, in October 1991. They drafted and adopted the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (the Paris Principles), which were subsequently endorsed by the UN Commission on Human Rights and General Assembly.2 Then, in 1993, the UN’s Second World Conference on Human Rights (the Vienna World Conference) endorsed and encouraged the establishment of independent NHRIs worldwide in accordance with the Paris Principles.3 The 1993 World Conference initiated a period of great growth, led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Today there are 117 NHRIs that are members of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, 84 of which are recognised as fully compliant with the Paris Principles and 33 of which are partially compliant.4 Twenty-five of them are located in the Asia Pacific region.5
