Thematic Areas

GANHRI brings together and supports NHRIs to promote and protect human rights.

The first pillar of GANHRI’s strategic plan (2017-2019) identifies eight thematic areas, with the strategic priority, to influence human rights debates at regional and international level.

Business and Human Rights

The Working Group on Business and Human Rights aims to support NHRIs in developing their capacity to fulfil their Paris Principles mandate in the human rights and business field, both individually, through action at national level, and via advocacy and collective actions, in the UN system and other international fora.

Migration

NHRIs exchange experiences on using international instruments to promote and protect the rights of migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons. In addition, NHRIs explore possibilities for cooperation between NHRIs in countries of origin, transit and destination.

Persons with Disability

Representatives from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, NHRIs and National Monitoring Mechanisms (NMM), as well as disabled persons’ organisations, civil society and experts from across the globe, convened in Geneva on 25 September 2014 to discuss strategies for the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention on Persons with Disabilities.

Gender Equality

NHRIs committed to supporting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) shortly after their adoption. They do so, inter alia, by contributing to combating gender-based violence against women and, in 2012, pledged to prioritize women’s human rights in their work.

Rights of older persons

NHRIs, in line with their Paris Principles-based mandates, can provide an important means to fill the existing promotion and protection gaps related to older persons. Many NHRIs are engaged in monitoring the human rights of older persons. Monitoring helps to identify the diverse issues older persons encounter and their particular vulnerabilities.

Shrinking democratic space

NHRIs collaborate with civil society, human rights defenders and relevant UN mechanisms such as the Special Rapporteurs on the issue of shrinking democratic space (documentation of national experiences) and treaty bodies. An annual report on shrinking democratic space for civil society and NHRIs is published on the occasion of the HLPF for Sustainable Development.

NHRIs in Conflict and Post-Conflict

NHRIs, as mechanisms that are independent from the government, can play a key role in preventing conflicts and ensuring respect for human rights and their protection in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Sustainable Development Goals

Given their unique mandate and role, NHRIs can play a key role in the implementation and follow-up of the Agenda, and are at the core of the SDG ‘web of accountability’. Their monitoring mandates give them a unique position to act as both watchdog and advisor in order to uphold the human rights embedded in the SDGs.