GANHRI president underscores key role of rights institutions' financial, administrative independence

HE President of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and Chairperson of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Maryam bint Abdullah al-Attiyah stressed the need for national human rights institutions to enjoy financial and administrative independence, which is one of the basic conditions for their classification and approval of their membership in the GANHRI, and for them to gain the confidence of the international community.
Addressing the GANHRI 2023 annual meeting at the UN Office in Geneva, she said the process of accrediting and classifying national institutions according to their commitment to the Paris Principles represents the core of the work of the joint coalition, and the essence of its collective responsibility in order to ensure a trustworthy, robust and transparent process that supports members of the coalition at all stages of the process.
The meeting brought together heads of the four regional networks -- the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa, regional co-ordinators, and the chairperson of the Subcommittee on Accreditation, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Programme Development (UNDP). Her Excellency added that the aim of the accreditation process is to ensure the support of national human rights institutions, and to prepare them to implement the Paris Principles in practice, while recognising their comprehensiveness and universality as standards, and studying how to apply them in the operations and activities of national human rights institutions within the specificities of national contexts, and pointed out that the coalition will organise its 14th international conference later this year, with the participation of national human rights institutions, including the Danish and Ukrainian entities.
She stressed the importance of this gathering of members and partners, and highlighted that the topic of the conference, which will discuss the role of national human rights institutions in preventing and responding to torture and ill-treatment, is a very important topic.
The conference will be an opportunity for members and its partners to show solidarity with the National Institution for Human Rights in Ukraine during this difficult time, she added.
HE Maryam bint Abdullah al-Attiyah also praised the contribution of the national institutions and the four-member network of the coalition in developing GANHRI's five-year strategic plan (2022/2023), noting that the plan was finalised in accordance with a consultative process that is consistent with the collective vision of the coalition.
In the same context, she held separate meetings with Chairperson of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions Elasto Hilarious Mugwadi, President of the Americas Network for Human Rights Raquel Caballero de Guevara, President of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions Doo-Hwan Song and Chair of the Network European Union for Human Rights Sirpa Rautio.
During the meetings, she clarified that the GANHRI comes amid difficult times for human rights and their defenders, including national human rights institutions, and stressed at the same time that the GANHRI will always work, alongside regional networks and partners to support member national institutions in their work.
The GANHRI's Assembly will encourage everyone to participate and engage in the meeting, which will take important decisions aimed at strengthening the alliance and national human rights institutions around the world, and it will present a new strategic plan for the period (2023/2027), Her Excellency said.
Everyone is looking forward to working together to overcome challenges in the field of human rights, strengthening the role of national human rights institutions in protecting and preserving internationally agreed human rights principles, and promoting their application to include everyone, she added. (QNA)