SECTION TWO: The Leaders rights defenders, and academic and other experts. NHRI leaders should have opportunities for further learning throughout their terms of office, not only when they are first appointed. NHRI leaders, especially new leaders, should also be enabled to exchange views and experiences with those in other NHRIs with similar roles and responsibilities and with those in United Nations (UN) and other international human rights agencies and mechanisms and those with UN human rights mandates. The international and regional networks of NHRIs generally and of NHRI leaders in particular are very valuable supports for NHRI leaders that can be tapped and utilised, especially when an NHRI leader is newly appointed or is facing a situation or issue not previously encountered. Everyone needs support and advice from time to time and NHRI leaders should be lifelong learners. So, there is no embarrassment in learning from other leaders. Although all are learners, every NHRI leader needs some previous experience relevant to the position to which the leader is appointed. Leadership positions are the most senior positions in an NHRI. For that reason, those heading a specific area of human rights work need experience in that area. Those with functional responsibilities, in management or in policy and research or in investigation and conciliation, for example, need experience in the appropriate function. They might not have experience at a comparable level of seniority but their experience should be sufficient to provide a base from which to learn more and develop further. Fifth, NHRI leaders should practise collegiality in their work. Collegiality is especially important in commission-model NHRIs where responsibility for the institution as a whole lies with the institution head and the other commissioners who collectively constitute the commission. Without collegiality among the members, these institutions will be unable to work effectively. Collegiality is also essential in ombuds-model NHRIs. The ombudsperson individually may have full authority within the NHRI but others, such as deputies and senior staff, share the responsibility for the NHRI’s work. The ombudsperson cannot do everything alone but needs to work as head of a team if the institution is to succeed. Collegiality is required among the NHRI leaders as a whole, both the top leaders and the senior staff, and among those two subsets separately, that is, among the top leaders and among the senior staff. In both contexts, teamwork should be the essential way of working. This requires high levels of trust, common vision and mutual accountability among the NHRI leaders. These requirements do not occur naturally but have to be consciously built and fostered. The common vision is developed through the strategic planning process. That process leads to an agreed plan for the organisation as a whole to which all leaders and all staff can be committed through their involvement in the process itself. The planning process can also build trust and its product, the strategic plan, can be the mechanism for mutual accountability. 4. What do NHRI leaders need to know? Joining an NHRI as a new leader can be challenging. The NHRI has probably been operating for many years, sometimes many decades, and has well established strategies, policies, programmes, operational procedures and public profile. All these are subject to review and change by incoming leaders, as appropriate, but new leaders will want to start by understanding the state of play in the institution at the time they join it. 13