Experts Discuss National Mechanisms for Human Rights Implementation

16 September 2022

At a roundtable organized in September 2022 by the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights – in partnership with the Geneva Human Rights Platform, the Universal Rights Group and the Danish Institute for Human Rights – UN member states, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), civil society organizations (CSOs) and academia discussed how they intend to give effect to the recommendations made in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) report 50/64 on the establishment and development of national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up.

Towards Better Implementation on the Ground

This report provides a summary of the exchanges that took place in 2021 during five online regional consultations to share experiences and good practices relating to the establishment and development of national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up, and their impact on the effective implementation of human rights obligations and commitments.

Inputting an Upcoming Resolution at the UN Human Rights Council

During the roundtable, invited representatives from permanent missions, NHRIs, CSOs and academia discussed concrete proposals concerning:

  • Further support for peer-to-peer exchanges between national mechanisms at the global and regional levels or on specific themes
  • The creation of a community of practice and a knowledge hub for national mechanisms in collaboration with interested partners
  • The development of the digital infrastructure specific to human rights mechanisms, including the National Recommendations Tracking Database (NRTD) and other digital human rights tracking tools, to facilitate the engagement of states and other stakeholders.

Ambassador of Paraguay, H.E. Scappini Ricciardi opened the roundtable and announced the tabling at the current HRC 51st session of a specific resolution on promoting international cooperation to support national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up.

‘This resolution may represent a decisive step towards implementation of the discussed proposals and, ultimately contribute to proper implementation of human rights obligations and commitments at the national level’ explains Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director and the Geneva Human Rights Platform.

The Geneva Human Rights Platform will continue working on these themes with relevant partners, as part of our ongoing initiatives on local implementation of global human rights, including our focus on improving the uptake of UN human rights recommendations by national human rights systems.

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