What can China learn from NHRIs in the region?

A new research project by a Peking University law student is examining the effectiveness of different models of national human rights institutions (NHRIs), drawing out important lessons which could guide the development of a human rights commission for China.

Ms Sanzhuan Guo, undertaking the research as part of her Doctoral studies, has received support from the APF Secretariat to assess the role, functions and structure of different NHRIs in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Mongolia.

Her research will also look at NHRIs in Africa (Kenya and Nigeria), the Americas (Mexico) and Europe (Denmark, France, Poland and Sweden).

“The project explores whether the establishment and effective functioning of NHRIs makes a positive impact on a country’s human rights performance,” says Ms Guo.

“It will review what factors help make an NHRI function effectively, as well as look at the key lessons that China can learn from other countries.”

The Paris Principles, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, set out the minimum standards for independent and effectively functioning NHRIs.

“However, some scholars and experts have begun to suggest that the criteria in the Paris Principles may not be sufficient, nor some of the conditions necessary, to guarantee the effectiveness of NHRIs,” she said.

“For a country that has not yet established a NHRI, the first question that needs to be answered is whether this kind of mechanism will assist the protection of human rights. In other words, do NHRIs matter for human rights protection?”

Using data collected between 1985 and 2007, Ms Guo will use a quantitative analysis to assess if, or how, the variables of “establishment of an NHRI” and “the effective functioning of an NHRI” are statistically significant to the human rights record of the country.

She will also build on steps taken by the International Council on Human Rights and other scholars that attempt to clarify the “indicators” of effectiveness of NHRIs, using the compliance theory of international human rights law and testing this against case studies of NHRIs, including those in the Asia Pacific

“The problems of current human rights protection regime in China will be examined in order to understand why China should or shouldn’t establish a national human rights institution,” says Ms Guo.

“To establish a NHRI in China requires not just political willingness, but also careful analysis of the model, the mandate, the relationship between NHRIs and other state organs, along with many other issues.”