Earlier this month the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions (ICC) released the results of its March 2009 accreditation review of nine national human rights institutions, including four from the Asia Pacific region. 

During the session, held from 26 – 30 March, the ICC Accreditation Sub-Committee reviewed national human rights institutions (NHRIs) from Switzerland, Ukraine, Algeria, Ecuador and Luxembourg, as well as APF member institutions: Malaysia, Palestine, Qatar and Sri Lanka.

Of the four APF member institutions:

• Palestine and Qatar were recommended for ‘A’ accreditation status
• Sri Lanka maintained its existing accreditation status, and
• The review of Malaysia was held over to the November 2009 review session in order to consider proposed amendments to Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999.

‘A’ status accreditation means that a national human rights institution (NHRI) complies with the Paris Principles, which are internationally agreed standards required by NHRIs to effectively fulfil their role.

NHRIs that receive ‘A’ status accreditation are able to participate in meetings of the UN Human Rights Council and related bodies.

Each NHRI must be reviewed and accredited every five years by the ICC Accreditation Sub-Committee.

General observation

An additional task of the Accreditation Sub-Committee is to formulate General Observations, which are intended to provide greater clarity regarding the application of the Paris Principles to the ICC’s accreditation process.

At its most recent meeting, the Sub-Committee drafted the following observation on the ‘Functioning of an NHRI in a volatile context’:

“The Sub-Committee acknowledges that the context in which an NHRI operates may be so volatile that the NHRI cannot reasonably be expected to be in full conformity with all the provisions of the Paris Principles. When formulating its recommendation on the accreditation status in such cases, the Sub-Committee will give due consideration to factors such as: political instability; conflict or unrest; lack of state infrastructure, including excessive dependency on donor funding; and the NHRI’s execution of its mandate in practice."

The General Observation recognises that a variety of factors may impact adversely on both the capacity of the State to establish an NHRI that is fully compliant with the Paris Principles or support an existing NHRI to undertake its full range of responsibilities.

However, the Observation also makes clear that the Sub-Committee will still consider the NHRIs "execution of its mandate in practice". This means that while a volatile domestic environment will be taken into account when determining the accreditation status of a NHRI, it will not, in itself, be a sufficient reason for a NHRI to not fulfil its mandate to the maximum extent possible.

In addition, existing General Observations regarding Coup d’Etat and National Security require the NHRI to maintain a heightened level of vigilance and independence during states of emergency.

The final report of the March 2009 session of Accreditation Sub-Committee, along with the text of all the General Observations, is available at: http://www.nhri.net/default.asp?PID=253&DID=0

At its next meeting, to be held from 16 – 18 November 2009, the ICC Accreditation Sub-Committee will consider Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Congo, Greece, Luxembourg, Mauritania as well as two NHRIs from the Asia Pacific region, Malaysia and Nepal.