Despite a growing profile in international legal and human rights scholarship, cross-fertilization of NHRI research with the social science fields has only just begun.
A practitioner-oriented literature has traditionally formed the bulk of the work on NHRIs, with particular regard for questions of NHRI origins, institutional effectiveness and narrative accounts of NHRI activity. However, an emergent ‘second generation’ of interdisciplinary NHRI research is increasingly apparent. This research has applied creative theoretical and analytical approaches – drawing on international law, comparative politics and socio-legal scholarship – to what is an increasingly well-specified substantive domain. The following links provide an overview of NHRI-related resources and scholarship.
In the ‘wiki spirit’ comments, contributions and suggestions are very welcome!
6. NHRI Practitioner materials
News Corner
Arcos Iris [Colombia], ‘Recuperar la Defensoría para el pueblo [Reclaim the Human Rights Ombudsman],’ 19 August 2012
Arco Iris [Colombia], ‘Vólmar Pérez: nueve años sin pena ni gloria [Vólmar Pérez: nine years without pain or glory],’ 19 August 2012
Philippine Daily Inquirer, ‘Inaction on Davao vigilantes hit,’ 19 August 2012
Miadhu [Maldives] ‘Change in govt took place due to Nasheed’s unconstitutional orders: HRCM,’ 19 August 2012
All Africa, ‘Nigeria: Mpape Demolition – NHRC Boss Counsels FCT Minister,’ 16 August 2012
Deccan Chronicle [India], ‘Accused had inflicted 77 wounds,’ 14 August 2012
AllAfrica.com, ‘Nigeria: NHRC Probes Assault On Leadership Photojournalist,’ 13 August 2012
Democratic Voice of Burma, ‘Human rights commission recognises Kachin abuses,’ 7 August 2012
ICC Sub-Committee on Accreditation
Reports and Recommendations of the Sessions of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA)
ICC Declarations
The Edinburgh Declaration, ‘Business and Human Rights: the Role of National Human Rights Institutions,’ the 10th International Conference of National Human Rights Institutions, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 October 2010.
The Rabat Declaration, ‘Peace and Justice: the Role of National Human Rights Institutions,’ the 7th Conference of African National Human Rights Institutions, Rabat, Morocco, 3-5 November 2009.
The Nairobi Declaration, ‘National Human Rights Institutions and the Administration of Justice,’ the 9th International Conference for National Human Rights Institutions, Nairobi, Kenya, 24 October 2008.
European Group of National Human Rights Institutions
Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI)
Kenya National Commission of Human Rights, Project Proposal: Establishment of the Network and the Secretariat of African National Human Rights Institutions, January 2006
Network of National Institutions in the Americas
Ibero-American Federation of Ombudsman (FIO)
International Ombudsman Institute (IOI)
National Institutions Accreditation Status as of March 2012 (PDF)
OHCHR Survey on National Human Rights Institutions, Report on the findings and recommendations of a questionnaire addressed to NHRIs worldwide, July 2009
OHCHR press release (2 April 2012) – Strengthening the bonds between parliament and NHRIs
UNDP-OHCHR, ‘UNDP-OHCHR Toolkit for collaboration with NHRIs,’ (PDF) December 2010
Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Crucial role of national human rights institutions in preventing violations and protecting rights, 17 May 2011
Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at 10th International Conference of NHRIs (8 October 2010)
NHRIs and the Human Rights Council
UN Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/20/L.15, Follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration, 29 June 2012
UN Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/RES/16/21, Review of the work and functioning of the Human Rights Council, 12 April 2011
UN Human Rights Council Resolution 5/1, Institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council, 18 June 2007
OHCHR information note for NHRIs regarding the Universal Periodic Review mechanism
Pegram, Thomas, contribution to UN knowledge network: HuriTALK on NHRIs and the second cycle of the UPR, 8 June 2012
United Nations documents
OHCHR, National Human Rights Institutions: History, Principles, Roles and Responsibilities (New York, OHCHR, 2010
OHCHR, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions (Geneva: OHCHR, 2005).
United Nations Centre for Human Rights, National Human Rights Institutions: A Handbook on the Establishment and Strengthening of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (4 UN Document HR/P/PT 4, 1995)
United Nations resolutions, declarations and statements
Report of the Secretary-General, ‘National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,’ UN Doc. No.: A/HRC/20/9, 1 May 2012
United Nations General Assembly, ‘The role of the Ombudsman, mediator and other national human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of human rights,’ UNGA Res. no.: A/RES/65/207, 28 March 2011
Report of the Secretary-General, ‘National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,’ UN Doc. No.: A/HRC/13/44, 15 January 2010
United Nations General Assembly, ‘The role of the Ombudsman, mediator and other national human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of human rights,’ UNGA Res. no.: A/RES/63/169, 20 March 2009
United Nations General Assembly, ‘National institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights,’ UN GA Res. no.: A/RES/63/172, 20 March 2009.
United Nations General Assembly [Third Committee], ‘National institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights,’ UN GA Doc. no.: A/C.3/64/L.32, 29 October 2009.
UN General Assembly, National institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights, Res. 48/134, 20 December 1993
Declaration and Programme of Action, as adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, A/CONF.157/23, 12 July 1993
Principles Relating to the Status and Functioning of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, adopted by the UN Human Rights Commission, Res. 1992/54, 3 March 1992 and the UN General Assembly, Res. 48/134, 20 December 1993.
National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, adopted 14 Dec. 1978, G.A. Res. 33/46, U.N. GAOR, 33d Sess., 83d mtg., U.N. Doc. A/RES/33/46 (1978)
Burdekin, Brian with Jason Naum, National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia-Pacific Region (The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007).
Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, Retos actuales de las instituciones nacionales de protección y promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Mexico City D.F.: CNDH, 2004).
Commonwealth Secretariat, National Human Rights Institutions: Best Practice (London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2001)
Dickson, Brice, ‘The Contribution of Human Rights Commissions to the Protection of Human Rights,’ Public Law 272 (2003), 272–85.
ICC-Canadian Human Rights Commission, Survey of National Human Rights Institutions on Article 33.2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, August 2011
Kjaerum, Morten, National Human Rights Institutions: Implementing Human Rights (Copenhagen: Danish Institute for Human Rights, 2003).
Kucsko-Stadlmayer, Gabriele (ed.), European Ombudsman-Institutions: A Comparative Legal Analysis Regarding the Multi-faceted Realisation of an Idea (Springer Wein: New York, 2008).
Lindsnaes, Birgit B., Lone Lindholt and Kristine Yigen (eds.), National Human Rights Institutions: Articles and Working Papers (Copenhagen: The Danish Centre for Human Rights, 2001.
Müller, Amrei and Frauke Seidensticker, The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in the United Nations Treaty Body Process (Berlin: German Institute for Human Rights, 2007).
Pohjolainen, Anne-Elina, The Evolution of National Human Rights Institutions: The Role of the United Nations (Copenhagen: The Danish Institute for Human Rights, 2006).
Ackerman, John, Organismos Autónomos y Democracia: El Caso Mexicano (México, D.F.: Siglo XXI Editores, 2007).
Australian Human Rights Centre, ‘National Human Rights Institutions: An Overview of the Asia Pacific Region,’ International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, vol. 7, no. 3, 2000, pp. 207-278.
Brodie, Meg, ‘Progressing Norm Socialisation: Why Membership Matters,’ Nordic Journal of International Law, vol. 80, 2011, pp. 143-92.
Byrnes, Andrew, Andrea Durbach and Catherine Renshaw, ‘Joining the club: the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, the Paris Principles, and the advancement of human rights protection in the region,’ Australian Journal of Human Rights, vol. 14, no. 1, 2009, pp. 63-98.
Cardenas, Sonia, ‘Sovereignty transformed? The role of National Human Rights Institutions,’ in N. Shawki and M. Cox (eds.), Negotiating Sovereignty and Human Rights (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 27-40.
Cardenas, Sonia and Andrew Flibbert, ‘National Human Rights Institutions in the Middle East,’ Middle East Journal 59 (2005), 411–36
Cardenas, Sonia, ‘Transgovernmental Activism: Canada’s Role in Promoting National Human Rights Commissions,’ Human Rights Quarterly 25 (2003), 775–90.
Cardenas, Sonia, ‘Emerging Global Actors: The United Nations and National Human Rights Institutions,’ Global Governance, vol. 23, no. 1, January 2003, pp. 23-42.
Carver, Richard, ‘One NHRI or Many? How Many Institutions Does It Take to Protect Human Rights? – Lessons from the European Experience,’ Journal of Human Rights Practice 3 (2011), 1–24
Carver, Richard, ‘A New Answer to an Old Question: National Human Rights Institutions and the Domestication of International Law,’ Human Rights Law Review 10 (2010), 1–32.
De Beco, Gauthier, ‘Networks of European National Human Rights Institutions,’ Human Rights Law Review, vol. 7, no. 2, 2007, pp. 331-70.
Dodson, Michael, ‘The Human Rights Ombudsman in Central America: Honduras and El Salvador Case Studies,’ Essex Human Rights Review, vol. 3, no. 1, 2000, pp. 29-45
Dodson, Michael and Donald Jackson, ‘Horizontal Accountability in Transitional Democracies: The Human Rights Ombudsman in El Salvador and Guatemala,’ Latin American Politics and Society, vol. 46, no. 4, Winter 2004, pp. 1-27;
Domingo, Pilar, ‘Weak Courts, Rights and Legal Mobilization in Bolivia,’ in Roberto Gargarella et al. (eds.), Courts and social transformation in new democracies: an institutional voice for the poor? (Burlington: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 233-254.
Finkel, Evgeny, ‘The Authoritarian Advantage of Horizontal Accountability: Ombudsmen in Poland and Russia,’ Comparative Politics, vol. 44, no. 3, 2012, pp. 291-310.
Finkel, Jodi, ‘Explaining the Failure of Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights (Ombudsman’s Office) after Democratization: Elections, Incentives, and Unaccountability in the Mexican Senate,’ Human Rights Review, vol. 13, no. 3, July 2012, pp. 1-23:
Gomez, Mario, ‘Social Economic Rights and Human Rights Commissions,’ Human Rights Quarterly 17 (1995), 155–69
Goodman, Ryan and Thomas Pegram, Human Rights, State Compliance, and Social Change: Assessing National Human Rights Institutions (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Gregory, Roy and Philip Giddings (eds.), Righting Wrongs: The Ombudsman in Six Continents (Oxford: IOS Press, 2000).
Hossain, K. (ed.), Human Rights Commissions and Ombudsman Offices: National Experiences throughout the World (Boston: Brill, 2000)
Koo, Jeong-Woo and Francisco O. Ramirez, ‘National Incorporation of Global Human Rights: Worldwide Expansion of National Human Rights Institutions, 1966–2004,’ Social Forces, vol. 87 (2009), pp. 1326
Kumar, Raj C., ‘National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Toward the Institutionalization and Developmentalization of Human Rights,’ Human Rights Quarterly 28 (2006), 755–79;
La Pérgola, Antonio, ‘Ombudsman y Defensor del Pueblo: Apuntes Para una Investigación Comparada,’ Revista de Estudios Políticos, no. 7, January-February 1979, pp. 69-92.
Mertus, Julie, Human Rights Matters: Local Politics and National Human Rights Institutions (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009).
Murray, Rachel, The Role of National Human Rights Institutions at the International and Regional Levels: The Experience of Africa (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2007).
Murray, Rachel, ‘National Human Rights Institutions: Criteria and Factors for Assessing Their Effectiveness,’ Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 25 (2007), 189–220.
Okafor, Obiora C., and Shedrack C. Agbakwa, ‘On Legalism, Popular Agency and ‘Voices of Suffering’: The Nigerian National Human Rights Commission in Context,’ Human Rights Quarterly 24 (2002), 662–720;
Pegram, Thomas, ‘The Bolivian Human Rights Ombudsman and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ in Eva Brems et al. (eds.) The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in the Protection of Economic and Social Rights (Intersentia, forthcoming 2012)
Pegram, Thomas, ‘Human Rights as a Vocation: A Portrait of Ana María Romero Campero,’ Harvard Review of Latin America (ReVista, Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2011)
Pegram, Thomas, ‘Weak institutions, rights claims and pathways to compliance: the transformative role of the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsman,’ Oxford Development Studies, vol. 39, No. 2, June 2011, 229-250
Pegram, Thomas, ‘Diffusion across political systems: the global spread of national human rights institutions,’ Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 32, No. 3, August 2010, pp. 729-760
Pegram, Thomas, ‘Accountability in Hostile Times: the Case of the Peruvian Human Rights Ombudsman 1996–2001,’ Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 40, no. 1, February 2008, pp. 51-82
Petersen, Carole J., ‘Bridging the Gap? The Role of Regional and National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific’, Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, December 2011.
Ramcharan, B. G., The Protection Role of National Human Rights Institutions (Leiden: Brill, 2005)
Reif, Linda, ‘The Ombudsman and the Protection of Children’s Rights,’ Asia Pacific Law Review 17 (2009), 27–52;
Reif, Linda, The Ombudsman, Good Governance and the International Human Rights System (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004).
Reif, Linda, ‘Building Democratic Institutions: The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in Good Governance and Human Rights Protection,’ Harvard Human Rights Journal, vol. 13, Spring 2000, pp. 1-69.
Waters, Christopher, ‘Nationalising Kosovo’s Ombudsperson: Implications for Kosovo and Peacekeeping,’ Journal of Conflict and Security Law 12 (2007), 139–48
Wetzel, Amanda, ‘Post-Conflict National Human Rights Institutions: Emerging Models from Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina,’ Colombia Journal of European Law 13 (2007), 427–70.
Smith, Anne, ‘The Unique Position of National Human Rights Institutions: A Mixed Blessing?’ Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 28, 2006, pp. 904-946.
Steinerte Elina, and Rachel Murray, ‘Same but Different? National human rights commissions and ombudsman institutions as national preventive mechanisms under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture’, Essex Human Rights Law Review, Special Issue, pp. 77-102, 2009
Uggla, Fredrik, ‘The Ombudsman in Latin America,’ Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, August 2004, pp. 423-450
Ungar, Mark, Elusive Reform: Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002).
Volio, Lorena Gonzaléz, ‘The Institution of the Ombudsman: the Latin American Experience,’ Revista IIDH, vol. 48, 2003, pp. 219-237.
Wall, Karin, ‘The PDDH in El Salvador – An important step towards reconciliation and democracy,’ unpublished student essay, Göteborg University, 2003.
Amnesty International, NHRIs: Recommendations for Effective Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (London: AI Index: IOR 40/007/2001, 2001)
Asian NGOs Network on National Human Rights Institutions, 2011 ANNI Report on the Performance and Establishment of National Human Rights Institutions in Asia (Bangkok: Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, 2011).
Association for the Prevention of Torture, Preventing Torture: An Operational Guide for NHRIs, May 2010
Columbia Law School, The Road to Rights: Establishing a Domestic Human Rights Institution in the United States, Report from the Global Exchange on National Human Rights Commissions, August 2-6 2010.
Dam, Shubhankar, ‘Lessons from National Human Rights Institutions Around the World for State and Local Human Rights Commissions in the United States’, Executive Session Papers, Human Rights Commissions and Criminal Justice, Harvard University, August 2007
Escobar, Guillermo, ‘Defensorías del Pueblo y Democracia,’ Quórum: Revista de pensamiento iberoamericano, No. 13, Winter 2005, pp. 72-89.
Human Rights Watch, La Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos de México: Una Evaluación Crítica (Mexico D. F.: Human Rights Watch Americas Division, 2008).
Human Rights Watch, Protectors or Pretenders? Government Human Rights Commissions in Africa (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2001)
International Council on Human Rights, National Human Rights Institutions and Peace Agreements: Establishing National Institutions in Divided Societies (Versoix: International Council on Human Rights Policy, 2006)
International Council on Human Rights, Assessing the Effectiveness of National Human Rights Institutions (Geneva: UNHCR, 2005)
International Council on Human Rights Policy, Performance and Legitimacy: National Human Rights Institutions (Versoix: ICHRP, 2000)
NHRI Torture Prevention and Response Project (Principals: Dr Par Engstrom and Dr Thomas Pegram, University College London and Trinity College Dublin
Pegram, Thomas, The Equality and Human Rights Commission: Challenges and Opportunities, AHRC Public Policy Series No. 1 (Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2012)
Programa Atalaya (academic analysis of the Mexican National Human Rights Commission (in Spanish) since 2003
Quórum (Revista), Las Defensorías del Pueblo y la Protección de los Derechos Humanos (Madrid: Universidad de Alcalá, 2008).
Raoul Wallenberg Institute NHRI Database