Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission took up its voting seat at the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) Sub Committee on Accreditation (SCA) in Geneva this week.

The Commission’s Tatau-Uruora Chief Executive Meg de Ronde represents the Asia Pacific region in making recommendations on the status of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) around the world.

De Ronde described the accreditation process as a crucial mechanism to strengthen human rights globally through stronger institutions nationally.

“It's an honour for Aotearoa to contribute through this peer review process as an A status commission."

There are 16 institutions before the four-member committee, including Myanmar, Russia, Malawi and Guatemala. Due to the conflict in Palestine the current voting member from the Palestine NHRI who was representing Asia Pacific was unable to attend, resulting in the New Zealand commission taking the voting seat six months early.

“It's perhaps not well understood, but our Commission must go through a rigorous external process every five years to demonstrate that we are compliant with the principles in place for institutions like ours,” says de Ronde.

“As a further testament to our standing as a commission we have now been elected for a term of three years to vote on the status of other global organisations.”

The accreditation process is required for an institution to be granted status as a National Human Rights Institution under the 1993 Paris Principles. Organisations that secure an A status then have particular rights to participate fully in regional and international work, including the right to speak on the floor of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations.

De Ronde said the work involved detailed briefings on each country, a pre-session to establish a list of issues for consideration and then an interview with each country’s NHRI before the committee voted on a recommendation.

The week of deliberations of the committee are confidential but information on the accreditation process, including the programme of countries, is publicly available.

"It's crucial to us that we uphold human rights not only in Aotearoa but also push for those rights to be upheld across the world. A stronger global rights system benefits all our communities," says de Ronde.

The Sub Committee sits twice a year and, therefore, has a workload of about 30 countries per year to consider and make recommendations on to the GANHRI bureau.

"Sometimes we have colleagues globally doing the same work as our Commission, but in the most unimaginable of circumstances. This process provides a set of expectations we all need to meet with a dignified collegial way to assess that," she says.

“Having a functioning human rights commission is a core marker of a country’s commitment to the protection of the rights of all people.”

The Sub Committee is hosted at the United Nations in Geneva through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as its secretariat and meets for a week of deliberations.

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