Capacity Assessment Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Chapter 1: Introduction Capacity assessment of NHRIs is a wonderful experience. It explores and identifies the challenges and suggests recommendations based on the available opportunities. It helps the team to broaden its experiences and the NHRI to meet the international standards. This is all done in a friendly setting. OBAID AL SHAQSI Secretary-General, National Human Rights Commission of Oman Team Member for the Bahrain National Institution for Human Rights CA, 2017 Capacity development (CD) is the process through which individuals, organisations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time. Supporting this process requires identifying what key capacities already exist and what additional capacities may be needed to reach these objectives. This is the purpose of a capacity assessment (CA). A capacity assessment provides a comprehensive perspective on the capacities critical to achieving development objectives. It is an analysis of required capacities against existing capacities and offers a systematic way of gathering data and information on capacity assets and needs. In 2008 the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF), the United Nations Development Programme Asia-Pacific Regional Centre in Bangkok (now the Bangkok Regional Hub – UNDP BRH) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms Section (NIRMS) began an initiative to strengthen national human rights institutions (NHRIs) through CA. That collaboration became known as the Capacity Assessment Partnership (CAP). Since 2008 in conjunction with APF the CAP has extended to other UNDP regional hubs, those in Amman (UNDP RHA) and more recently Istanbul (UNDP IRH). The CAs have also gone global, having been brought under the Tripartite Partnership of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), OHCHR and UNDP. In 2016 this partnership produced Global Principles for the Capacity Assessment of National Human Rights Institutions.1 The CAP has been based on the strengths and years of experience each organisation has in providing support to NHRIs. The APF is the regional association of NHRIs, a member-based organisation that supports the establishment and strengthening of independent NHRIs in the region. In 2019 it has 25 members.2 UNDP has supported many NHRIs as part of its support to national systems for the promotion and protection of human rights. OHCHR has similarly had a long history of supporting the establishment and/or strengthening of NHRIs around the world. In July 2008 the CAP was developed to provide coordinated assistance to NHRIs in the region. The partners took the UNDP CA methodology – a generic assessment template for State institutions – and adapted it to the particular circumstances of NHRIs. They revised the assessment methodology to help the NHRI self-identify areas in which it needs to improve its capacity, and thus its effectiveness, and potential strategies to foster this improvement. In 2008–09 two pilot CAs of NHRIs were conducted, first with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (known as SUHAKAM) and then with the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives. 1 Available at https://nhri.ohchr.org/EN/IHRS/tripartite/Joint%20Studies%20and%20Knowledge%20Products/GANHRI-UNDPOHCHR%20Global%20Principles%20for%20the%20Capacity%20Assessment%20of%20NHRIs.pdf. 2 See the APF website at www.asiapacificforum.net/. 5