8.2.3 Organisational Structure

NHRIs members working with the Executive Director or equivalent position will set about establishing the organizational structure, which should reflect the NHRI's general mandate, roles and responsibilities, with a focus on functional areas of responsibility.

Key principles: Responsibilities, accountabilities and delegations of authority should be clear: the levels of hierarchy should be held to a minimum.

Assessing organizational developing and opening local / regional offices is dealt with in Chapter 9.

Sample key elements of a sound organisational structure in NHRIs:

• Members or commissioners lead the organisation and are accountable to the government or Parliament for the overall performance of the organization, usually through annual reports and special reports.
• A senior official who runs operations, such as an executive director or secretary general who is accountable to the members.
• Departments broken down by functional lines, for example:
• Investigation / Complaints Handling/ Monitoring Department.
• Legal /Policy Department: responsible for policy advice generally, providing legal advice on corporate matters, as well as on substantive human rights issues such as reviewing laws and incorporating international standards.
• Promotion Department: responsible for human rights education; media relations, publications, communications.
• Administrative or corporate services department (human resource, finances, coordinating IT and other corporate services).
• Specialised structures for strategic focus and expertise. For example, many NHRIs have distinct organisational units specialising in gender and women's equality (see section 8.4).
• A "registrar" or similar position (a term commonly used in many NHRIs to describe the person responsible for physically receiving, cataloguing and tracking incoming cases and related inquiries). The function generally reports to either the senior office-holder or the senior public servant.

Should the NHRI create specialised structures, like units dedicated to particular issues? For thematic areas of priority, there is often a tension between mainstreaming, which is designed to ensure that the issue is taken seriously across the organisation, and creating a dedicated or specialised structure. On the other hand, mainstreaming has had mixed results in many organisations. That, plus the special needs that may exist in individual countries, has led some NHRIs to take a long-term and more specialized approach supported by a permanent structure and dedicated resources. This may involve the establishment of specific departments, units, specialised committees, centres or individual focal points. These may be especially relevant for vulnerable groups such as women, children, persons with disabilities or IDPs, depending on national priorities.

An effective organisational structure will support good human resource management, effective and quick decision-making and clear lines of authority. As well, the organization must support all of the areas of human rights capacity and the functional areas of capacity.