Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions The CA process is not a research project on either the NHRC itself or the human rights situation in the NHRI’s country. It is a self-assessment based on the perspectives of leaders and staff of the NHRI. It does not follow up statements or seek corroborating or contradicting evidence or interrogate the NHRI leaders and staff to verify what they say. The process accepts, analyses and reports on the selfassessments given by the leaders and staff, including inconsistent views and opinions where they arise. It does not seek to evaluate or weigh evidence to form conclusions of its own. It does seek to reflect accurately what participants in the CA say in discussion groups and report in questionnaires so that it can propose a program for CD for the NHRI. It was a very useful tool for us because it’s a self-assessment process and it helped all of us, including the officers, to really analyse what we are doing and what we want to achieve as an organisation. HASHIMAH NIK JAAFAR Secretary, Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) Team member for the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives CA 2009 The CA process is not related to the NHRI accreditation process undertaken by the GANHRI SubCommittee on Accreditation. The accreditation process assesses the NHRI’s compliance with the international standards for NHRIs, the Paris Principles, for the purpose of international recognition and acceptance of the NHRI, especially in the UN human rights system. The CA will consider the comments and recommendations of the accreditation process relating to the NHRI. Those comments and recommendations may assist the CA’s development of strategies and actions to strengthen the NHRI’s capacity. However, the CA does not assess compliance with the Paris Principles. It does not provide any report to the Sub-Committee on Accreditation. It has no role in the international accreditation process. 2.3. WHAT A CAPACITY ASSESSMENT IS A CA asks what the current strengths and weaknesses of the NHRI are and what developments are needed to improve the functioning of the NHRI over the next five years. In doing so, NHRI leaders and staff are invited to identify the ‘capacity gaps’ or ‘capacity deficiencies’ of the NHRI. The capacity assessment is a truly unique opportunity to assess and gauge the structure, internal workings and capacity challenges of a national human rights institution. The distinctiveness of this process lies in its focus on discerning and benchmarking the current institutional capacity in each individual NHRI as a basis for planning its own future capacity development and addressing a broader range of capacity areas relevant to the particular context in which the NHRI operates. AHMED SHAHID Secretary General, Human Rights Commission of the Maldives Team member for the CAs of NHRIs in New Zealand, Nepal, Indonesia, Timor Leste and Malaysia 10