Chapter 1
Introducing National Human
Rights Institutions

Chapter 2
Models of NHRIs

Chapter 3
Roles and Responsabilities of
NHRIs

Chapter 4
The Rule of Law and the NHRI

Chapter 5
NHRIs, Development and
Democratic Governance

Chapter 6
Situating NHRI Support in the UN Planning & Programming Process

Chapter 7
Pre-establishment Phase of NHRIs

Chapter 8
Establishing NHRIs

Chapter 9
Consolidation Phase:
Strengthening the Mature NHRI

Chapter 10
Paris Principles and Accreditation

Annex 2: Selected Regional Instruments and International Law

Africa

Constitutive Act of the African Union, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/23.15, entered into force May 26, 2001.

African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, entered into force Oct. 21, 1986. Ratification information

Rules of Procedure of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted on October 6, 1995.

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and People’s Rights, June 9, 1998

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, entered into force January 25, 2004.

Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, entered into force Nov. 25, 2005.

Rights of the child

African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, entered into force Nov. 29, 1999.

Ratification information

Declaration on the Decade of a Culture of the Rights of the Child in West Africa (2001-2010).

Nationality, statelessness, asylum and refugees

Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, U.N.T.S. 45, entered into force June 20, 1974. Ratification information

The Khartoum Declaration on Africa’s Refugee Crisis, September (1990).

The Addis Ababa Document on Refugees and Forced Population Displacements in Africa, Adopted by the OAU/UNHCR Symposium on Refugees and Forced Population Displacements in Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 8 - 10 September 1994

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) 2001.

Americas

American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, entered into force April 1948

American Convention on Human Rights, entered into force July 18, 1978

Cartagena Declaration on Refugees (1984)

Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture (1985), entered into force February 28, 1987.

Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, adopted on June 8, 1990.

Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons, entered into force March 28, 1996

Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, entered into force November 16, 1999

Women’s rights

Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Civil Rights to Women, entered into force March 17, 1949

Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women, entered into force April 22, 1949

Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, entered into force March 5, 1995

Persons with disabilities

Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, adopted on June 7, 1999

Europe

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, entered into force September 3, 1953

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000/C 364/01)

European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment entered into force in 1989 and was amended by Protocol 1 and 2

European Social Charter (revised), entered into force July 1, 1999 Part V, Article E 4(3), 8(2)(3)(4)(5), 20 8(1)

European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights, entered into force July 1, 2000

Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, open for signature May 16, 2005.