UN Human Rights Committee outlines relationship with NHRIs

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has adopted a key position paper on the relationship of the Committee with National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs).
Rapporteur of the statement’ Professor Michael O’Flaherty’ who is both Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and Vice- Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee said:
‘This paper usefully defines the relationship between the Committee and National Human Rights Commissions. It recognises the important role that national human rights institutions have in bridging the gap between international and national human rights systems. It acknowledges the role NHRIs play in the reporting procedure and sets out a number of positive statements for the Committee in respect of improving accessibility and information sharing. Having this paper adopted can only assist future interactions between the Committee and NHRIS.’
The paper outlines the following:
• General Observations
• National human rights institutions independent role
• Role of national human rights institution in the reporting procedure
• National human rights institutions’ role in relation to the individual communications procedure under the Optional Protocol
• Input to the drafting and use of the Committee’s General Comments
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory body first proposed in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (1998) and established in 1999 by the Northern Ireland Act (1998). It is answerable to Parliament at Westminster.
2. Professor Michael O’Flaherty took up the position of Chief Commissioner in September 2011. He came to the Commission from the University of Nottingham where he held the positions of Professor of Applied Human Rights and Co-Director of its Human Rights Law Centre.Since 2004 he has been an elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (re-elected in 2008) and is currently a Vice-Chairperson. He is also a member of the UN Expert Group on Human Rights Indicators. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He read law at University College Dublin (BCL)’ theology and philosophy at the Gregorian University’ Rome (BPh’ STB)’ international relations at the University of Amsterdam (MA’ MPhil) and is a Solicitor of the Irish Courts. He was the Rapporteur for development of a new General Comment of the Human Rights Committee on the topic of Article 19 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Freedoms of Opinion and Expression). He has been an advisor to many international and regional inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and is a member of the editorial boards of the Human Rights Law Review’ the Irish Yearbook of International Law’ the International Journal of Human Rights’ European Yearbook on Human Rights’ and Revue Trimestrielle Des Droits de L’Homme. Until December 2003’ Michael served in a number of senior positions with the United Nations. He established the UN human rights field missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1994) and Sierra Leone (1998) and subsequently guided UN headquarters support to its human rights programmes across the Asia-Pacific region. He has served as Secretary of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and UN human rights advisor for implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. From 2000 to 2002 he chaired the UN reference group on human rights and humanitarian action. Michael’s term as Chief Commissioner will last five years.
3.View the full paper: