A Manual on National Human Rights Institutions Chapter 1: The origins and development of NHRIs KEY QUESTIONS • How do State human rights obligations lead to the need for NHRIs? • How and why has the UN system encouraged the establishment of NHRIs? • What are the international standards for NHRIs? 1.1. STATE OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Obligations under international human rights law fall on States. States are responsible for the promotion and protection of the human rights and the performance of the obligations that they voluntarily accept through becoming parties to (that is, ratifying or acceding to) treaties and that they acquire under international customary law.9 The human rights obligations of States are said to fall into three categories: • the obligation to respect: States themselves and their agents, including the police and the military, must not violate human rights • the obligation to protect: States must prevent human rights violations by others, including individuals, corporations and other organisations and actors • the obligation to fulfil: States must take positive action to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights by all people.10 States are accountable internationally for their performance of these obligations. Through the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), each State must report every four and a half years on its performance, expose itself to questioning and the responses of other States to its report and answers, and receive the recommendations of other States on what action it should take to improve its performance.11 Through the treaty monitoring bodies established by each of the core human rights treaties, each State party to each treaty must report regularly to the relevant treaty monitoring body, attend its meeting, answer the questions of its independent expert members and receive its findings and recommendations.12 4 9 See APF, International Human Rights Law and the International Human Rights System, 2012; chapter 3 discusses treaty-based human rights obligations and obligations arising under international customary law. 10 See, for example, Human Rights Committee, General Comment 31: The nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add. 13 (2004); Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12: The right to adequate food, E/C.12/1999/5 (1999); and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 24: Women and health (20th Session, 1999). 11 See www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx. See also APF, International Human Rights Law and the International Human Rights System, 2012; chapter 6 discusses the UPR mechanism. 12 There are nine core human rights treaties, each of which has a specialised committee of independent experts to monitor performance of the treaty’s obligations by States parties and to promote the treaty and its interpretation and implementation. See www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/TreatyBodies.aspx and http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/docs/OHCHR-FactSheet 30.pdf. See also APF, International Human Rights Law and the International Human Rights System, 2012; chapters 10 to 12 discuss the role and functions of the treaty monitoring bodies.