NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION 3.1. Administrative Functions 3.1.1. General Administration and Administrative Functions The NHRC’s policies are made in compliance with its goals and objectives to make it more capable and effective. It requires an effectively functioning organisation. Planned activities cannot materialise in the absence of an effective organisation. The organisation should be able to accommodate the ever-expanding goals and scope. Therefore, a decision has been made to extend the NHRC offices up to the regional levels. Likewise, no organisation can gather momentum, unless there is effective management and capable administration. Operation of administrative works has been matched with the newly approved organisational structure. To house its administrative office, the NHRC has received the old building of the then Ministry of Supplies located at Harihar Bhawan from the His Majesty’s Government. The reconstruction of the building has reached a final phase. In its attempt to make the office easily accessible and physically strong, the NHRC has entered into an agreement for estimated budget and supervision required for the office layout design, repairs and renovation for which the consent of the Department of City Development and Building Construction has been obtained. The NHRC has already approved the office layout design. Electricity and wiring works, and the construction of toilet and stairs have been completed. This achievement in the NHRC’s physical infrastructure is expected to help perform its administrative works. Realising the need for capable human resources required for discharging the duties of protecting and promoting human rights guaranteed by the Human Rights Commission Act 1997, employee positions have been ascertained in line with the NHRC’s workload. The NHRC’s current workforce strength is 54 employees—hired both on permanent payroll and project bases. The Commission’s duties include hearing and making decisions on the complaints of human rights violations, creating public awareness towards promoting the Commission and its works, and advising the government on the human rights issue. Its responsibilities also involve publishing the Commission’s rights protection activities, and other rights awareness generating materials. Likewise, it also reviews whether the existing Nepalese laws are compliant with international laws, treaties and conventions, and provides counselling in this regard to the government. This much of the workload has rendered the Commission’s existing staff positions inadequate, and created impediments to its smooth functioning. There is the need for immediately addressing the complaints that have spiralled in the recent years. It has evinced the need for reviewing the existing employee positions that should match with the Commission’s swelling workload. It is also for career development of the Commission’s human resources that a separate human resource development policy has been drafted and awaits implementation. The Commission has also set up the Human Rights Documentation Centre with the cooperation of Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) and other donor agencies. The DIHR has provided books on human right to the Centre that presently has books, reports, magazines, and bulletins relating to human rights. ‘WINISIS’, a software programme for making entries of all the books of the Centre, has been installed, and it has almost completed making the entire entries to the computer. However, budget crunch and lack of other resources have impeded the library management of the Commission. 10