This indicator measures the global continual efforts of countries in setting up independent national institutions, through international cooperation, to promote inclusive, peaceful and accountable societies.

This indicator Existence of independent national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles measures the compliance of existing national human rights institutions with the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles), which were adopted by the General Assembly (resolution 48/134) based on the rules of procedure of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI, formerly the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights or ICC).

Ministry of National Security/Belize Police Department

Ministry of Human Development

Ministry of National Security/Belize Police Department

Ministry of Human Development

Annual

Percentage (%)

The creation and fosterage of a NHRI indicates a State’s commitment to promote and protect the human rights provided in international human rights instruments. Compliance with the Paris Principles vest NHRIs with a broad mandate, competence and power to investigate, report on the national human rights situation, and publicize human rights through information and education. While NHRIs are essentially state funded, they are to maintain independence and pluralism. When vested with a quasi-judicial competence, NHRIs handle complaints and assist victims in taking their cases to courts making them an essential component in the national human rights protection system. These fundamental functions that NHRIs play and their increasing participation in the international human rights fora make them important actors in the improvement of the human rights situation. At the national level reporting, the better the accreditation classification of the NHRI reflects that it is credible, legitimate, relevant and effective in promoting human rights at the national level.

A National Human Rights Institution is an independent administrative body set up by a State to promote and protect human rights. They are part of the State apparatus and are funded by the State. However, they operate and function independently from government. While their specific mandate may vary, the general role of NHRIs is to address discrimination in all its forms, as well as to promote the protection of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

Core functions of NHRIs include complaint handling, human rights education and making recommendations on law reform. Effective NHRIs are an important link between government and civil society, in so far as they help bridge the 'protection gap' between the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of the State. Six models of NHRIs exist across all regions of the world today, namely: Human rights commissions, Human rights ombudsman institutions, Hybrid institutions, Consultative and advisory bodies, Institutes and centers and multiple institutions.

An Independent NHRI is an institution with ‘A level’ accreditation status as benchmarked against the Paris Principles. The process of accreditation is conducted through peer review by the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the GAHNRI. There are three possible types of accreditation:

a. Compliance with Paris Principles

b. Observer Status – Not fully in compliance with the Paris Principles or insufficient information provided to make a determination

c. Non-compliant with the Paris Principles

While disaggregation of information is not applicable for this indicator, it may be desirable to highlight the type of NHRI, whether Ombudsman, human rights commission, advisory body, research-based institute, etc.

In terms of method of computation, the indicator is computed as the accreditation classification, namely A, B or C of the NHRI.

This indicator is used to help in the elimination of discriminatory laws and the promotion and enforcement of non-discriminatory laws.

Accreditation of NHRIs shows that the government supports human rights work in the country. However, their effectiveness should also be measured based on their ability to gain public trust and the quality of their human rights work. In this context, it would also be worthwhile to look into the responses of the NHRI to the recommendations of the GANHRI. Likewise, the inputs from the NHRI while engaging with the international human rights mechanisms (i.e. submissions to the Human Rights Council, including UPR, and to the treaty bodies) represent a valuable source of information on how NHRIs carry out their mandate in reference to international human rights instruments.

UN treaty bodies have also recognized the crucial role that NHRIs represent in the effective implementation of treaty obligations and encouraged their creation. A compilation of various recommendations and concluding observations relevant to NHRIs emanating from the international human rights mechanisms in the United Nations is available at: http://www.universalhumanrightsindex.org/.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.