What makes a strong National Human Rights Institution?

What makes a strong National Human Rights Institution? Reflections from my first attendance at the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GAHNRI)

In his opening remarks to the GANHRI annual conference on 12 March, Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was clear. Human rights are about the law, about the facts, and about compassion. His clarity and composure encouraged delegates and their nations to hold firm at this time of instability and uncertainty globally.

The message was clear: it is a time to strengthen human rights internationally and domestically; not to undermine rights by division, but to protect the rights that have been so hard won and apply that same commitment to secure rights for those who continue to be marginalised by disability, racialisation, gender identity and at global level by genocide and forced displacement.

It was an honour to hear from the High Commissioner directly, and from so many colleagues from around the world working through so many difficult daily rights violations, and so many shared issues of concern and of organisational stability.

Achieving the universal principle as set out in Article 1 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” will not be secured by division and rolling back on rights in law, but by working collectively to know and apply the law as it is, and to support the rule of law. For the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC), that means working to our mandate to advise on what rights are engaged, and drawing on international and domestic law and human rights obligations in our advice to the Scottish Parliament, rights holders and duty bearers, as we did last week in a statement on sex and gender matters to clarify the relevant legal instruments, and our statutory role.

Another reflection from GANHRI was the emphasis from the High Commissioner on the threats to the global consensus is on the importance of the rule of law and strengths of National Human Rights Institutions. Strong institutions need robust governance. From the outside, it may not look like the most exciting part of building and leading an organisation, but good governance is of central importance. Adhering to principles and process characterises an institution’s ways of working and ensures the effective functioning organisations at local and global levels.

Observing the processes at the GANHRI conference made me think that while the diplomatic formulas of conducting business at the UN may seem overblown and arcane, at their core they are levellers as the forms of address and the efforts to allow all to speak are attempts to work in a way that reflects the pluralism we seek to work to in our domestic settings. The respect for the integrity of the accreditation process, or for the presentations of sister organisations are not only the central character of all the contributions across the debates, but are the unchallenged and expected ways of working of NHRIs, underpinned by the principles of public life, and the collective responsibility that is an incontrovertible requirement of being part of a codified organisation 

As bridging institutions, NHRIs are the intermediaries between government and rights holders. At GANHRI it was said a few times that NHRIs are the ‘glue’ between rights holders and duty bearers, bringing into public and parliamentary scrutiny evidence of rights denials as experienced by rights holders. This is what we have done in our recent reports of the extremes of inappropriate care and funding for people with severe learning disabilities and/or who are autistic and the failure of  government actions and funding to deliver independent living; or the failure of government to act on long standing recommendations to meet basic conditions in places of detention, and exposing the gaps in minimum core obligations for economic, social, and cultural rights in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Being among colleagues from across the world reinforced how far the SHRC has to go at our local level on widening diversity of experience and perspective among the membership of the Commission. I am hopeful that forthcoming recruitment for new members of the SHRC will go some way to addressing gaps in perspective and experience as required by every public body and especially an NHRI.

Later this month we are publishing our Participation Strategy which sets out the SHRC’s commitment to participatory engagement with rights holders, human rights defenders, and duty bearers, not as an occasional add-on but as our character as Scotland’s NHRI, and our approach to achieving our Strategic Plan objectives. These objectives were agreed by current and past members of the SHRC and developed through participatory consultation. They set out our clear priorities which include a focus on poverty, rights of disabled people, treatment of Scottish Gypsy Travellers, and on encouraging the Scottish Parliament to hold duty bearers to account for their actions in relation to human rights obligations, informed by our evidence gathering through domestic monitoring and our submissions to the international treaty processes which currently frame human rights. 

I was pleased to be able to discuss these priorities with Scottish Parliament Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee (EHRCJ) in January, and the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee in February. In discussing the structure, mandate, and development opportunities for SHRC in the context of Officeholder Landscape Review Committee, we discussed different models of NHRIs and were able to point to different structures around the world. Having just had the privilege of meeting colleagues from so many different organisations and contexts, I have come home with so much more knowledge, lots of ideas for our future and many offers of collaboration to support Scotland’s NHRI, as well as so many warm examples of unprompted appreciation for our work on Spotlights, Strategic Plan, participation, and more.

It takes a lot to build a strong NHRI. Learning from colleagues internationally, bearing witness to rights holders locally, working effectively to agreed principles and expected standards, and building an agile and effective team all play their part.