Extra-territorial human rights situations that affect
the territory or the citizens of the NHRI’s home State
Extra-territorial human rights violations may have a direct effect on an NHRI’s home State. When that
occurs, the NHRI may have jurisdiction to act on the situation, exercising its functions under its law.
An NHRI can provide advice and recommendations on action that should be taken in relation to an
extra-territorial human rights situation to prevent harm and to protect human rights to citizens of its
own country or in its own country and elsewhere.
Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
The actions of Carbon Majors have contributed and continue to contribute to climate change
that has increased the frequency and severity of storms in the Philippines, causing grave
human rights violations there. CHRP decided that, because of this connection, it had
jurisdiction to undertake a national inquiry and to make findings of fact and recommendations
to address the situation.21
Oman Human Rights Commission
OHRC advises the Government of Oman to interact and conduct national research on
emerging human rights situations around the world, such as effects of climate change on
Oman in the last 15 to 20 years in terms of the increase of the frequency and severity
of seasonal cyclones as well as the severity and changing pattern of the Indian Ocean
monsoon effects.22
Some human rights violations have several constitutive elements and, in some circumstances, those
elements can occur in different States. The International Criminal Court has held that the commission
of only one element of a crime under the Rome Statute in a State Party is sufficient connection to
bring the whole situation within the jurisdiction of the Court.23 Such a connection also enables a State’s
NHRI to exercise jurisdiction in relation to the situation.
National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh Forcible
deportation of the Rohingya from Myanmar
In 2017-18 some 700,000 Rohingya people fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh as a result
of longstanding persecution and a ‘clearance operation’ commenced by the Myanmar
military in August 2017. The military killed thousands and burnt Rohingya villages to force
the Rohingya to flee. This clearance followed an earlier smaller one in October 2016 and, by
the end of 2017, there were one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The International
Criminal Court found in 2019 that the facts of the situation could constitute the crime of
deportation and that one element of that crime occurred within Bangladesh, which is a State
21. Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines National Inquiry on Climate Change at https://chr.gov.ph/nicc-2/.
22. From information provided for this paper by the Oman Human Rights Commission. See also https://ohrc.om/en/?p=1902.
23. International Criminal Court Pre-Trial Chamber III Situation in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh/Republic of the Union of Myanmar ICC-01/19 14 November 2019 at
https://www.icc-cpi.int/court-record/icc-01/19-27.
22
National action on international issues