Past projects - The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

The Role of National Human Rights Systems in the Implementation of International Human Rights Standards and Recommendations

Completed in December 2021

The proliferation of United Nations (UN) and regional human rights mechanisms demands a systemic study of their national dynamics and effects, as states struggle to keep up with their reporting obligations and the implementation of a growing number of recommendations. In addition, UN and regional human rights systems often overlap in scope, whilst not prescribing strict measures of implementation. This entails that all domestic actors (governmental actors, independent state actors, and non-state actors) have multiple roles to play in relation to the implementation of international human rights norms and recommendations.

Improving the system at the international level constitutes therefore only one side of the coin. We also need to understand whether the international human rights system may benefit from improved coordination and leveraging of synergies at the national level.

This project – coordinated by Dr Domenico Zipoli – analysed the role of national human rights systems (NHRSs) in implementing international human rights standards and recommendations.

Partners

Consultation partners for this project included the Defensoria de Los Habitantes de Costa Rica, the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia, the National Human Rights Council of Morocco, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

This research project was supported by the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Office of the United Nations and to the other International Organizations in Geneva.

Publication Clarifies the Role of National Human Rights Systems in the Implementation of International Human Rights Standards

Based on collected evidence from three national contexts – Costa Rica, Mongolia, Morocco and Paraguay – it provides a classification of national monitoring and implementation strategies and consolidates into one publication the most recent efforts at systematizing the role and functions of NHRSs from both an academic and policy perspective. It represents a concrete and useful tool to further streamline the uptake of recommendations from the UN human rights system at the national level, notably by identifying best practices and formulating a series of key recommendations.

This publication was informed by a series of online workshops and an international conference that helped identify the best national practices that are most effective in the monitoring and implementation of international human rights recommendations.