Institute provides an example of the broad range of activities that NHRIs may want to consider in addressing concerns about TNCs and human rights. 21 Further information on the Institute can be found at: http://www.humanrightsbusiness.org/ Within the APF, all NHRIs have a mandate to both promote and protect human rights. The former role involves both education and advocacy on the application of human rights while the latter involves the protection of human rights through the monitoring of domestic developments and compliance, (including such activities as data gathering, research, and analysis), the provision of individual complaint handling services and the conduct of, or participation in inquiries into systemic rights violations. Adopting the SRSG’s tripartite approach, and mindful of the potential roles outlined above, the ACJ provides the following recommendations with regard to the role an NHRI can play in promoting human rights compliance pursuant to their core functions of monitoring, education, advocacy and complaint handling. Monitoring NHRIs can play an important role in monitoring and documenting violations of human rights by corporations operating or incorporated in their domestic jurisdiction. Monitoring may involve a wide range of activities and NHRIs may wish to consider: • Auditing their existing mandates to determine the manner in which the violation of human rights by TNCs may be addressed through their existing functions; • Cooperating regionally or internationally, to examine existing domestic, regional and international standards to determine best practice in State and voluntary regulation of the conduct of TNCs. The proposed ICC Working Group on Business and Human Rights may provide an appropriate vehicle for international cooperation in this regard; Conducting (or commissioning) a review of relevant domestic legislation in their jurisdiction to ensure that the rules governing the creation and conduct of business by corporations contain appropriate regulations to ensure that corporations operating both at home and extra-territorially are required to operate in full compliance with international, regional and domestic human rights standards; • • Conducting (or commissioning) a review of existing monitoring and grievance mechanisms in their jurisdictions to determine if additional remedial mechanisms, or the removal of barriers is required; • Seeking to include within their respective mandates the role of the National Contact Point under the OECD guidelines. NHRIs in non-OECD countries should assess the possibility of establishing a similar mechanism to the OECD National Contact Point; • Monitoring and documenting violations of human rights by TNCs operating both domestically and extra-territorially in cooperation with NHRIs in host states. In this regard NHRIs should consider the value of cooperating in the gathering and consolidation of jurisprudence from regional states and internationally. The information obtained should assist in advocacy and should be included in NHRI reports to appropriate international and regional human rights bodies; • Assisting in educating and building the capacity of human rights defenders to monitor and address breaches of human rights by the corporate sector. In accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, NHRIs should forge and maintain strong links with human rights defenders. Recognising that NHRIs have limited resources, NHRIs may wish to give priority to: • State and public enterprises, and private enterprises performing public functions; 21 - 15 -