Part II National human rights institutions’ domestic activities and functions Chapter 10: Public inquiries KEY QUESTIONS • What are the advantages and disadvantages of NHRIs conducting a public inquiry into indigenous peoples’ human rights? • What are the steps involved in establishing and conducting an effective public inquiry? FOUNDING PRINCIPLES FOR NHRI INVOLVEMENT Paris Principles Competence and responsibilities 3. A national institution shall, inter alia, have the following responsibilities: (a) To submit to the Government, Parliament and any other competent body, on an advisory basis either at the request of the authorities concerned or through the exercise of its power to hear a matter without higher referral, opinions, recommendations, proposals and reports on any matters concerning the promotion and protection of human rights; the national institution may decide to publicize them; these opinions, recommendations, proposals and reports, as well as any prerogative of the national institution, shall relate to the following areas Conducting a public inquiry – also known as a national inquiry – on systemic or extremely serious human rights violations can be an effective strategy for NHRIs. A public inquiry enables NHRIs to investigate beyond an individual complaint and identify structural issues or underlying causes of human rights violations. Effective data collection from individual complaints can provide the necessary evidence to justify a public inquiry. If NHRIs fail to engage with serious or systemic human rights violations it may undermine their credibility. For indigenous peoples, this could foster mistrust and result in disengagement from the NHRI. A public inquiry is especially important where it becomes apparent to the NHRI that it cannot adequately address a human rights issue through its regular monitoring programme or its complaints processes. Public inquiries are also useful because they often attract significant media attention, which helps raise public awareness and support and can culminate in law or policy reform. Detailed information on preparing for and undertaking a public inquiry is provided in the Manual on Conducting a National Inquiry into Systemic Patterns of Human Rights Violation, published by the APF and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.245 245 The Manual was published in 2012 and is available at www.asiapacificforum.net/support/resources. Chapter 10: Public inquiries | 91