NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
baseline study be repeated after two years and after a further three years to enable the
Commission to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of its programmers. The capacity
development project coordinated by UNDP will support these activities, including assisting with
the design and implementation of a comprehensive public education and information strategy
based on the baseline study.
If the Commission is to meet its long-term goal of a just society where violence by state is an
episode of the past and officials know, and are held accountable for, their responsibilities,
extensive training programmes and policy initiatives are going to be required. Just as the
Commission does not have the capacity by itself to develop a human rights culture throughout
the country, so it will need considerable assistance from partners to make officials aware of their
responsibilities and ensure that they comply with them. The Commission intends to work with
all relevant training institutions and departments in the official sector to train their trainers to
mainstream human rights into their own training programmes.
In time, the NHRC intends to undertake regular national inquiries into specific human rights
issues. While the intense nature of national enquiries and the extensive resources they will
require means the first inquiry will need to wait until the Commission is at full capacity, it is a
medium term strategy to take advantage of the profile and effectiveness that such initiatives can
generate.
Outcome: Public awareness of their rights and freely exercising them; state actors meeting
their responsibilities
6.3 Human Rights Monitoring and Investigation
The NHRC currently receives a regular flow of complaints of human rights violations and expects
these to grow exponentially as the Commission’s profile rises. At present its capacity to resolve
these grievances is very limited, both in terms of staff capacity and systems. Effective complaints
systems that avoid bureaucracy need developing. Once staff are recruited, they will need
training in investigation and monitoring as well as mediation and conciliation to resolve
grievances effectively.
Systematic monitoring systems will be established in cooperation with the institutions where
violations are reported, particularly in the law enforcement sector where the NHRC intends to
focus on enforced disappearance, torture and extra judicial killings.
Outcome: Human rights grievances effectively resolved through investigation and
conciliation. A progressive and sustained reduction in human rights violations by the
authorities.
6.4 Human rights research, reporting and policy development
If the Commission is to achieve compliance of existing and new legislation and administrative
practices with international human rights standards, it will need to enlist the active cooperation
of all ministries. There is a large volume of legislation to be reviewed and new policies are
required to ensure that future legislation is human rights complaint. Rather than have its own
staff review all legislation (a very large task) the NHRC plans to develop a programme to train
ministry officials to conduct audits of the legislation for which their ministries have
83