GANHRI and DIHR develop new guidance for NHRIs to advance promotion and protection of Human Rights
In the framework of the NHRI·EU Capacity Development Project, GANHRI, in joint efforts with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), organized a series of events aimed at presenting the new guides developed for National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) on promoting human rights and advancing their implementation in countries.
The guides developed by DIHR in collaboration with GANHRI, draw on experiences and lessons learned from NHRIs across the globe and identify opportunities for linking the human rights work of NHRIs to the 2030 Agenda.
The first of the online events, focused on the importance of engaging with the Voluntary National Review (VNR) of 2030 Agenda progress to promote human rights. Arguing that NHRIs have a leading role in reviewing the process, recognizing strengths and advising in VNR reporting and policy design.
The guide presented at the event, explains in detail NHRIs’ responsibilities in encouraging relevant state actors to participate in the VNR, offering their human-rights expertise and connections in preparing, consulting and drafting VNR reports and bridging the relationship gap between civil society, rights holders and duty bearers.
Throughout the meaningful discourse, Soledad Patané (Defensoría del Pueblo de la Nación Argentina), Lambert Luguniah (Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana) and Alison Hosie (the Scottish Human Rights Commission) shared their experience and good practices with peer NHRIs highlighting how the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development is shifting their attention towards humanitarian issues, posing an exciting opportunity for NHRIs to be involved in their top-line international leadership commitments and presenting the practical human-rights oriented steps needed to deliver on them. In support of this sentiment VNRs will be a major aiding factor in monitoring SDG progress and identifying areas for improvement.
VNR Guide Spanish, French and Arabic.
In further exploration on strengthening the capacities of NHRIs, the remaining event analysed experiences and lessons of National Human Rights Institutions directed towards ensuring accountability through a human rights-based approach to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) data.
The guide, published jointly with the event, refers to experiences and lessons learned from NHRIs across the globe and identifies opportunities for using human rights standards and methods to improve official data, and bring other data sources to bear on monitoring of sustainable development and human rights. The publication illustrates how some of these challenges have been addressed, and opportunities seized, by NHRIs in practice.
To further elaborate, Lambert Luguniah from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana, reported on the difficult situation of many NHRIs in developing countries, having no comprehensive official statistics on all the SDG indicators. Concluding with Elizabeth Kamundia, representing Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and Heba Farid from the Independent Commission for Human Rights of Palestine that NHRIs should engage in forming close collaborations with National Statistic Offices (NSOs), UN agencies and voluntary sector organizations on HR data collection and interpretation, in order to improve NHRI data quality and data collection methods.
The continued cross-efforts between the organisations will progress in developing future guidance and collaborations in search of effective and efficient strategies for NHRI capacity growth in order to ensure no one is left behind.
SDG Data Guide Spanish and French
We invite all NHRIs to share any feedback with us on how you plan to use the guidances or if you have already used them. You can share your feedback with info@ganhri.org.
