“Article 12 of Law 7/2004 requires the Parliament to publicly call for candidates for Provedor. The PDHJ states that in practice, prior to the creation of a shortlist, the Parliament disseminates the notice among stakeholders and consultations take the form of written submissions to the Parliament. Whilst the SCA notes that the PDHJ has adopted a Normative Order formalizing the participation of CSOs in the appointment of Deputy Provedors, the same mechanism is not available for the selection and appointment of the Provedor.

The SCA considers that the process currently enshrined is not sufficiently broad and transparent. In particular, the selection and appointment process of the Provedor does not formalize broad consultations and/or participation of CSOs and other diverse groups. The SCA is of the view that involvement of civil society organizations should be formalized, for example by directly soliciting proposals from civil society, or allowing civil society to directly participate in the evaluation process.

The SCA encourages the PDHJ to advocate for the formalization and application of a process that includes a requirement to promote broad consultation and/or participation of CSOs in the application, screening, selection and appointment process of the Provedor.

The SCA refers to Paris Principle B.1 and to its General Observation 1.8 on ‘Selection and appointment of the decision-making body of NHRIs’.”