ABOUT THE COMMISSION The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) is a federal statutory body formed through an Act of Parliament. It is an independent National Human Rights Institute (NHRI) with a mandate set up in line with the Paris Principles. NCHR is the outcome of Pakistan’s constitutional commitments as well as its international treaty commitments to promote and protect human rights. NCHR is the apex human rights institute in Pakistan in terms of broadness of scope and multiplicity of functions. The Commission has been granted a wide mandate which encompasses multiple ways and means to pursue its stipulated goals. Very concisely, it is envisioned, inter alia: to monitor, investigate, and hear human rights complaints; act as a watch dog on legislation, set standards, and enable implementation; promote awareness of and act as an advocate for human rights; generate and enable research and data production on human rights; and drive policymaking for human rights protection. NCHR also has the capacity to advise the Government on Pakistan’s commitment to fulling its international human rights obligations under the seven core international human rights instruments Pakistan is a signatory to and has ratified: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Institutional Updates: To date one Commission has completed its terms and after an interregnum of almost two and a half years the current Commission has started functioning December 2021 under its newly appointed Chairperson and Members. The current Commissioners are:       Chairperson: Ms. Rabiya Javeri Agha Member Balochistan: Ms. Farkhanda Aurangzeb Member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Mr. Tariq Javed Member Sindh: Ms. Anis Haroon Member Punjab: Mr. Nadeem Ashraf Member Minority: Mr. Manzoor Masih A major challenge currently faced by the new commission on its set up was an acute resource constraint - both financial as well as human. For an entity of such significance, and entrusted with such a broad and complex mandate, the commission historically was acutely under-funded and under-resourced. Further, the two-and-a-half-year gap in the appointment of the new Commission 2