The role of state actors of the national human rights system
Purpose
Given the revival of entrusting domestic state actors with a mandate to both promote and implement human rights, this project wants to map, analyse, conceptualise and revisit the role of state actors within the national human rights system (NHRS).
The project is based on previous theoretical and conceptual work on human rights compliance, governance and implementation, and is presented through material and experience gained from a.o. the Danish Institute for Human Rights' projects focused on capacity-building of the state actors of the NHRS.
A systems approach to the role of state actors in human rights protection and promotion allows us to capture the political and institutional complexity of domestic human rights implementation. Such an approach values coordination of the state human rights action (horizontal dimension) and its interaction with supra national human rights mechanisms (vertical dimension). This holistic NHRS approach may also offer guidance to states, donors and organisations implementing human rights work on the ground.
The project sheds light on the coordination of the actions of state actors at the domestic level, their interplay with non-state actors and their interactions with international human rights mechanisms. It wants to contribute to an academic reflection on the complexity and shortfalls of the real-life functioning of human rights state actors.
- Panel at the 2018 AHRI Conference in Edinburg
- Special Issue on the Domestic Institutionalisation of Human Rights, edited by Jensen, S.L.B., Lagoutte, S., Lorion, S., Nordic Journal of Human Rights, 37(3) 2019 and especially:
- Lagoutte, S., The Role of State Actors within the National Human Rights System, 177-194.
- Jensen, S.L.B., Lagoutte, S., Lorion, S., The Domestic Institutionalisation of Human Rights: An Introduction, 165-176.
- Lagoutte, S., Lorion, S., Jensen, S.B.L. (eds), The Domestic Institutionalisation of Human Rights, Routledge, 2021.
- Interactions with international human rights mechanisms are explored in a 2022 Analysis of Individual international complaints and communications: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia
The project is also the basis for developing concepts and methods for a in-house toolbox and training modules, presentations for partners and MA courses on National human rights systems and international human rights mechanisms.
VIDEO: Book launch of "The Domestic Institutionalisation of Human Rights", Geneva Academy 28 September 2021
Starts: 2015
Ends: Ongoing