NHRI Leadership: an introductory guide Section two: The Leaders • The leaders in NHRIs are all those who have a leadership role. They include the institution head, other statutory officeholders, the SEO and other members of the staff leadership team. • An NHRI’s founding law often prescribes the criteria for NHRI leaders. • There are five essential requirements for NHRI leaders: independence, integrity, expertise, experience and collegiality. • When they begin their appointments, new NHRI leaders need to be provided with the information and resources required to understand the institution and its law, its policies and procedures, its work plans and its staffing. 1. Who are the leaders in NHRIs? Leadership within an NHRI is a shared function. All those who make key decisions, who are the institution’s principal advocates, who manage and supervise, and who are accountable for the performance of the institution share the leadership function. So, leaders include both statutory officeholders and senior staff. That is not to say that all leaders have the same roles and responsibilities. Each person will share in institutional leadership in accordance with the nature and functions of the position occupied and with individual expertise and experience. The NHRI’s founding law designates one or more statutory positions in the institution. The titles and nature of these positions varies from one NHRI to another. There are also significant differences flowing from whether the institution is established on the commission model or the ombuds model. In commission-model NHRIs, the founding law designates one person as the head of the institution. That person may be called the president or the chief commissioner or the chairperson. In addition, the law will provide for a number of other commissioners. The institution head and the other commissioners together constitute the commission, a collegial body chaired by the institution head and collectively responsible for the leadership and operations of the NHRI. Generally, they are collectively accountable to the parliament for the NHRI’s performance. In some institutions, the institution head acts as chief executive officer, managing the institution on behalf of the commission. In other institutions, that role is shared collectively by the commission. In ombuds-model NHRIs, the founding law will designate one person as head of the institution. That person will usually be called the ombudsman or ombudsperson or ombuds. In some ombuds-model NHRIs, the head may be called provedor(a) or defensor(a) or public defender. That person is solely responsible for the NHRI’s leadership and operations. The law may also identify positions of deputy to assist the institution head. The law may give these positions specific functions and powers but generally the deputies act on behalf of the institution head within whatever areas and with whatever powers the head may delegate to the deputies. The institution head is the chief executive officer and is individually accountable for the NHRI’s management and for its performance. Whether established on the commission model or the ombuds model, NHRIs will typically have a SEO heading the staff team. This officer is accountable to the institution head individually or to the commission collectively, depending on the nature of the institution and the provisions of the founding law. The day-to-day management of the institution lies with the SEO. 10