Building collaboration between NHRIs and intergovernmental mechanisms

While NHRIs in the Asia Pacific have been active at the international level – individually and collectively – to raise human rights issues and collaborate with UN bodies and experts, their engagement with regional mechanisms has been limited.

The Inter-governmental Mechanisms (IGM) Project, funded by the European Union, helped address this gap by providing opportunities for representatives of NHRIs and regional IGMs to meet together, discuss their work in relation to human rights, climate change and the environment, and identify areas for collaboration.

For the majority of NHRIs, especially in the Pacific, this was their first experience learning about and meeting with their regional IGMs. A talanoa approach - sharing stories in a ‘cultural context’ -  was adopted to build rapport and create opportunities to share freely. 

In South-East Asia, some NHRIs had previously established ad hoc relationships with their national Representative to AICHR, given their status as a former Chairperson or Commissioner of the NHRI. As in the Pacific, these roundtable dialogues were an important opportunity for IGMs to better understand the mandate and priorities of NHRIs, especially in relation to their work on human rights and climate change and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.