National Human Rights Institutions

The Danish Institute for Human Rights (the Institute) have assisted National Human Right Institutions (NHRIs) in becoming more effective mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights and rule of law. These efforts have resulted in a large number of projects and programmes in Africa, Asia, Latin-America, the Middle East and Eurasia.

As one of the first established NHRIs in the world, we have deep insight into the mandate, structure and legal foundation of NHRIs, as well as hands-on experience with structures and processes that can be considered essential for the effective functioning of NHRIs.

Despite basic differences between NHRIs around the world, the fact remains that all NHRIs share common objectives formulated in the Paris Principles, and this commonality of objectives leads to common “effectiveness factors” that need to be in place:

Building a stronger organisation together

The premise for our approach to collaborating with other NHRIs is a strong partnership approach. The Institute is, first and foremost, a sister organisation that is active in the various regional and global NHRI networks in order to strengthen NHRIs in their ability to carry out their domestic mandates and to develop the working methods of the institutions. We regard this as a twofold obligation: On one hand, an obligation to assist NHRIs in developing countries and, on the other hand, an obligation to support the UN human rights system, which depends on effective NHRIs. Thus,the Institute engages with NHRIs in a long-term collaboration process that stretches beyond specific assignments.

The essential first step forthe Institute is always to ensure that the NHRI-leadership is fully on board for the process. The Institute works from the premise that all organisational change processes need to be guided and driven by top management in order to have the necessary transformative power. As part of our approach,the Institute typically includes capacity development of the leadership, enabling it to take on the responsibilities of communicating the vision of the organisation and carrying the change process forward.

In this way the Institute, so to speak, builds capacity from within and anchors organisational development processes solidly in the central structures and processes of the organisation, rather than attempting to drive the change forward by way of experts, technical tools or ad-hoc and disconnected organisational development departments within the organisation.

At the same time, the Institute's approach is highly participatory, seeking to build ownership of the organisational development process within all parts of the organisation through involvement, communication and team collaboration. Staff members have an important role in identifying capacity gaps and opportunities, and strategies should be directed toward strengthening the NHRI as a whole, including developing the capacities of individual staff members and making communication and team-work more effective and rewarding.