1.2.7 NHRIs and the protection of specific groups
NHRIs also address issues related to thematic issues and to particular categories of specific persons/groups, issues that cut across civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and may involve issues where the rights at stake are highly contested:
- Women11
- Children
- Indigenous peoples
- Persons with disabilities12
- Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities
- Refugees and internally displaced persons
- Persons with disabilities, including HIV/AIDs
- Migrant workers
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons
For further discussion of the role of NHRIs in the protection of vulnerable persons, see Chapter 3.
11 CEDAW. See General Recommendation No. 6 (seventh session, 1988).
12 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. For a discussion of the role played by NHRIs in this convention, see Stein and Lord, “The United Nations Convention on The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities as a Vehicle for Social Transformation”.