Part II Protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls: NHRIs in action Young girl from Oman. Photo by Claude Florin, reproduced under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. 5.1. INTRODUCTION It is not sufficient for human rights to be protected in laws and upheld in policies. Effective implementation of human rights standards requires that there are procedures and systems in place to identify and respond to violations and complaints of violations. NHRIs are a critical part of the national system of human rights implementation, not least through their role to investigate allegations of human rights violations. The mandate of most NHRIs allows them to investigate complaints lodged by an individual, by someone else on behalf of an affected individual or by an interested group. Some NHRIs are also able to initiate their own investigations into issues brought to their attention. Investigating allegations of human rights violations can help NHRIs to achieve a number of important goals. For example an effective complaint handling mechanism can promote access to justice and provide practical redress for individuals who have had their rights violated. Receiving and resolving complaints can also have a powerful educative effect and promote greater understanding of national and international human rights standards within government, detaining authorities, business and industry, civil society and the broader community. The investigation powers of an NHRI will normally be set out in its establishing legislation. These powers may be a combination of any of the following: • To consider individual complaints and make recommendations for redress and remedies to appropriate authorities. • To consider individual complaints (including through mediation and conciliation) and issue legally enforceable orders and binding decisions, including the payment of compensation to victims by respondents. • To seek redress on behalf of complainants through courts and tribunals or by referring complaints to other competent complaint handling bodies, such as government departments, the parliament, the judiciary and prosecuting authorities. • To initiate investigations on their own motion (i.e. suo moto) into human rights violations. • To advise courts and tribunals as amicus curiae or by intervening in relevant cases.89 89 UNDP and OHCHR, Toolkit for Collaboration with National Human Rights Institutions, 2010, p. 32. Chapter 5: Responding to complaints of violations of women’s and girls human rights | 53