NHRI Leadership: an introductory guide Introduction National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are independent bodies, established by the law of their country, to promote and protect human rights. They are state institutions, not non-government organisations. They investigate and report on human rights violations, help shape laws, policies and practices to protect and promote human rights, raise awareness of human rights issues and educate on human rights law and obligations. They work for attitudinal change to create fair, inclusive communities based on human rights. They collaborate with the international human rights system and with other NHRIs to strengthen human rights law and practice nationally and internationally. Strong, independent and effective leadership is a key factor in NHRIs’ fulfilling their mandate. Due to their unique nature, leading NHRIs is a significant task. New NHRI leaders may face challenges understanding their new roles and responsibilities and the complexity of the work of NHRIs. Even experienced NHRI leaders regularly encounter new issues and challenges in their work. This short guide is a resource to assist leaders in meeting these challenges. The guide describes briefly the nature of NHRIs and the requirements of NHRI leadership. It sets out the roles and responsibilities of the various categories of leaders – those who head the institution, others appointed to statutory positions within the institution, the senior executive officer (SEO) and other senior staff, acting individually and collectively. These are all NHRI leaders with important roles to play in directing and managing the NHRI and its operations and ensuring its effectiveness. Necessarily the guide deals generally with the roles and responsibilities of NHRI leaders. Each NHRI has its own law and its own policies and procedures. NHRIs differ significantly from one another. This short guide cannot incorporate all the divergence of NHRIs. It therefore deals with what is general or typical among NHRIs. At the end of each section, there is a set of questions for leaders that seeks to direct attention to the specific situation of the NHRI in which the leader is located. In this way, the guide seeks to enable leaders to come to a better understanding both of general practice among NHRIs and of the specific practice of their own NHRI. At the end of the guide, section 6 provides a list of resources for further reading and for consulting. Wherever possible, it includes a weblink to enable quick and easy access to the particular resource. The list is not exhaustive but it includes those resources most specific to NHRI leadership and therefore most immediately useful to NHRI leaders. The list includes all the manuals for NHRIs produced by the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF), the regional association of NHRIs. These manuals provide detailed introductions to the world of NHRIs and to areas of their work and activity. They supplement this short guide for those who want to look more deeply into specific aspects of NHRIs and of NHRI leadership. In producing this guide, APF continues its work to strengthen the capacity of NHRIs and their effectiveness in promoting and protecting human rights. It seeks to support NHRI leaders in the important, challenging roles they have accepted. APF supports NHRI leaders with specific services such as capacity assessments, high level dialogues and chairperson outreach programmes. Section 5 of this guide provides information about these services to NHRI leaders. 4