NIHR Participates in the Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Paris principles and the 75th Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Eng. Ali Ahmed Al-Derazi, Chairman of the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR), and Counsellor-at-Law Yasser Ghanim Shaheen, NIHR Secretary-General, have participated in the activities of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Paris Principles and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which were held on the side-lines of the annual conference of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), where a session was held in which a number of special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council presented a summary of their role in protecting human rights, and another session was held for a number of national institutions to present their viewpoints and experiences in the field of protecting and promoting human rights in their countries.
On the side-lines of the conference, a TV interview was made with the NIHR Chairman about the role of national institutions and the support provided by the Paris Principles aimed at the independence of administrative and financial institutions, defining the objectives and specialisations of institutions, and what was added in general by the national institutions in promoting and protecting human rights in the countries in which they were established.
It is worth noting that, based upon the results of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, the UN General Assembly, on December 20, 1993, gave strong support for the establishment and strengthening of national human rights institutions in accordance with the "Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions", commonly known as the Paris Principles. The Paris Principles, which were first formulated by national human rights institutions at a workshop sponsored by the UN, defined the roles, responsibilities and minimum standards of national human rights institutions that must be considered in order for these institutions to be independent and effective.
In addition, this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which provides the basis for the work of national human rights institutions in all regions of the world, where a communication programme was established for a year, aiming to raise awareness of the role of national human rights institutions, regional networks and the Global Alliance and strengthen this role, raise awareness of the Paris Principles and highlight how to implement them in practice and their importance for strong and effective national human rights institutions, and increase the impact of national human rights institutions on the promotion and protection of human rights and the importance of partnerships in bringing about lasting change, in addition to enhancing awareness of the UDHR and how it supports the work of national human rights institutions in all regions.
