Chapter II: Progress Achieved in the Human Rights Condition, and the Efforts and Activities of the National Institution for Human Rights in the Field of Promoting and Protecting Human Rights Introduction: The role of the national human rights institution is actualized through their constitution or legislative mandate in the field of “promoting and protecting human rights,” and this role is clearly manifested in “the Paris Principles” related to the role of national institutions in promoting and protecting human rights as a constitution for their activities and an effective and constructive element in promoting and protecting human rights within the state system. The role of these institutions in terms of “promotion” is evidenced in the spreading of the culture of human rights through the variable means, including the holding of conferences, training courses, workshops, and lectures for the general public, or particular target groups, in addition to training in the field of human rights and the publication and printing of awareness raising publications connected to the activities of national institutions. It may be averred that the lack of knowledge of the principles of human rights among all the segments of society contributes to their violation, where the promotion of human rights concepts and instilling awareness of them is something that contributes to safeguarding the totality of those rights. As to the “protection” of human rights which is the other element of the role of national institutions in promoting those rights, it entails their undertaking the process of monitoring of all which may impinge on the right of individual to enjoying the public rights and freedoms determined for them, where the process of monitoring constitutes a necessary means for ascertaining the extent to which the state respects and honours its legal or international obligations related to human rights, and such protection necessitates for national institutions to perform field visits to places at which it would be possible for human rights violations to take place. Accordingly, this Chapter will address the role performed by the National Institutions in the field of promoting and protecting human rights insofar as two basic sections: the first is allocated to elucidating their activities in the field of promoting human rights, while the second will elucidate their efforts in the field of protecting those rights. 41