Use outcomes of the national level to inform international advocacy
Introduction
NHRIs can choose to use the outcomes of national efforts to secure the effective implementation of the Convention and execution of the Court’s judgments as input for international advocacy efforts. This can be an important step when efforts on the national level, used to pressure and influence State authorities into compliance, have been unsuccessful or progress remains slow. If deemed necessary and helpful, NHRIs can participate in international proceedings, in a way circumventing non-complying national authorities, to bring their claims to the international level. By utilizing outcomes of national advocacy efforts as input for international advocacy, NHRIs can make optimal use of outcomes of national advocacy efforts.
Good practices
Armenia
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia used the outcomes of joint discussion and consultation with NGOs as a basis for a Rule 9(2) Communication, which was submitted in the group of cases of Poghosyan v Armenia.
As the Communication states, the joint Rule 9(2) submission presents ‘one of the several forms of cooperation of national human rights institutions and national civil society organizations with the Council of Europe’.
Greece
The Greek National Commission submitted the outcomes of their two large-scale participation hearings of national stakeholders – focused on the Chowdury v Greece case – as a Rule 9(2) Communication to the Committee of Ministers.
Examples of national advocacy actions
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