National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) worldwide – including in Europe – face increasing threats, attacks, and undue challenges that could pose a risk to their independent and effective functioning.
This guidance page offers a means to tackle this. It outlines the support available to NHRIs from ENNHRI, as well as regional and international partners, and how can NHRIs access this support.
Any NHRI in need of support can use this resource, even if it does not consider itself ‘under active threat’. Broadly defined, the support encompasses various actions, including helping prevent threats and build resilience. At the same time, the guidance is particularly helpful to NHRIs who believe they are currently under attack, threatened, or facing undue challenges and believe they can benefit from tailored, swift, and effective support from ENNHRI, or regional and international partners
It is left to NHRIs to decide if and under which circumstances support is needed, possible, and helpful.
ENNHRI’s support for NHRIs under threat
To fully realise their potential, NHRIs need an environment that allows them to work independently and effectively. Yet European NHRIs face threats, attacks, and undue challenges when implementing their mandate.
Any NHRI who sees itself as under threat can reach out to ENNHRI for swift and tailored support. This process follows a few simple steps:
STEP 1
The NHRI contacts the , Chair, or any ENNHRI Board Member.
STEP 2
ENNHRI’s Secretariat coordinates follow-up to the request and clarifies the support needed (in line with ENNHRI policy).
STEP 3
Support is provided in consultation with the NHRI concerned and ENNHRI Board. Where relevant, ENNHRI can coordinate with partners and/or peer NHRIs.
STEP 4
ENNHRI stays in contact with the NHRI to monitor developments, impacts, and potential further support needs.
Partner support to NHRIs under threat
In recent years, regional and international partners working with NHRIs have stepped up their efforts to address challenges and threats faced by NHRIs. As human rights defenders (HRDs) themselves, support for NHRIs facing threats is also a key aspect of broader protection for HRDs and civic space. Cooperation in this area at both national and regional level has proven to be crucial for facilitating tailored and swift support to NHRIs under threat. Coordination with and between partners can contribute to more complementary and efficient support being provided to NHRIs.
What types of support are available from partners to NHRIs?
The types of support available to an NHRI are as diverse as the threats they may face. As an overarching principle, NHRIs remain in the driving seat in determining the partner, action, and timing that would be most effective in their specific circumstances.
In turn, partners may also have limitations in the support they can provide. The scope of support by each partner is clarified in this guidance and will ultimately depend on the mandate of the partner organisation, the specific circumstances of each case, and discussion on needs between the NHRI and relevant partner(s).
Key ways in which international and regional partners can support NHRIs under threat include:
Public support
Issuing public statements, press releases or open letters outlining the concerns, applicable standards and, where relevant, recommendations to relevant actors, e.g. government or parliament.
Private and diplomatic engagement
Having closed meetings, sending private letters, or engaging with relevant authorities without public communication.
Policy recommendations
Providing suggestions on policy and practice that respect NHRI standards or can be considered good practices.
Legal opinions
Advising on relevant standards in the context of draft bills or proposed amendments to an NHRI’s legislation.
In-country missions
Visiting NHRIs in their countries, separately or as part of a delegation of partners, to better understand the context, show support, and meet relevant authorities.
Funding support
Providing resources to NHRIs or directly supporting their activities.
Other direct support
Including work on resilience, capacity building activities, reporting on issues at stake and raising public awareness.
The actions can be addressed to government, parliament, other relevant authorities, or the NHRI itself. Upon the advice of the NHRI, partners will also consider if support is best given separately or in coordination with other regional or international partners.
In case NHRIs have questions about the support available, they can contact the and/or each partner separately for clarification.
Institutions offering support to NHRIs under threat
Explore below and see how you can access the types of assistance that different institutions can provide.
- All institutions
- Funding and direct support
- In-country missions
- Legal opinions
- Other actions
- Policy recommendations
- Private and diplomatic engagement
- Public support
- All institutions
- Funding and direct support
- In-country missions
- Legal opinions
- Other actions
- Policy recommendations
- Private and diplomatic engagement
- Public support
Contact Group of Partners to Support NHRIs under Threat
The Contact Group brings together regional and international partners working to support NHRIs’ work in Europe.
Through the group, they exchange information on supporting European NHRIs under threat. This can include, when agreed by the NHRI concerned, information sharing and/or coordination of joint responses to individual cases.
The Contact Group is also a place to share information on the broader enabling environment for the independent and effective functioning of NHRIs in Europe, as well as updates from partners on their work in this area.
Suggestions for NHRIs to facilitate swift and tailored support
Relying on past experiences and feedback from NHRIs as well as international and regional partners, this Guidance identifies some useful practices and suggestions for NHRIs when reaching out to international partners, to ensure that support can be as tailored, swift, and efficient as possible. While NHRIs remain in control of when and how they seek support, they are encouraged to:
Provide information on the deteriorating situation at an early stage, if possible, even before it constitutes a threat or attack, and inform partners of relevant developments.
Briefly explain the negative impact (factual, perceived, or potential) that the threat can have on the NHRI’s ability to carry out its work.
Provide a brief context and analysis, if relevant, to help better understand the (political) situation and consider effective support measures from an external perspective.
Provide suggestions on the kind of support they would find suitable for the given situation, which can then be considered by the partner.
Provide timely, clear and concise information on the nature of the threat faced. Objective and summarised information on the facts of the case are also helpful, beyond the NHRI’s appreciation of its impacts.
Provide any available supporting documents and materials, including relevant news articles, statements, legislation, draft laws, reports, information from third parties, among others.
Provide a contact person or a clear way to contact the NHRI for requesting additional information, by email or phone.
Indicate any requests for confidentiality or, alternatively, whether it would be useful for the information to be shared with other partners, for example with the ‘Contact Group of Partners to Support NHRIs under Threat’. Where appropriate, also indicate if the information has already been provided to other actors.
Regional context
Learn more below about the increasingly difficult situation NHRIs face; the objective standards that protect NHRIs and underpin their work; and the importance of building their long-term resilience.
National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are key actors for the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. As Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), they help bridge the protection gap between the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of the State, including in cooperation with other actors such as civil society organisations (CSOs). The positive impact of NHRIs has been widely recognised by national, regional and international actors, and by rights-holders themselves. Despite this, NHRIs across the globe, including those in Europe, have been facing threats, attacks, and undue challenges when carrying out their mandate.
The challenging environment faced by many European NHRIs is related to a wider trend of challenges to the rule of law, the narrowing of civic space in the region and increasing challenges faced by HRDs more broadly. As a result, many NHRIs face more obstacles to carry out their work in an independent and effective manner.
According to a study from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), 54% of European NHRIs reported that they experienced a threat between 2017 and 2021. The threats included personal attacks against the leadership or the existence of NHRIs, significant limitation of their budget, and obstructions of NHRIs’ work by not respecting their mandate.
Many NHRIs reported that threats were of a legislative nature or involve an obstruction to their work, with the majority of threats taking place in national parliaments or in the media. The study also found that NHRIs are particularly subject to threats when their work relates to human rights issues that are politicised or sensitive, as well as specific discriminatory and sexist personal attacks against women leaders of NHRIs. This negative trend is confirmed by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, which noted in a 2020 study that 14 NHRIs in the EU reported they had been subjected to threats and harassment in a one-year period.
By virtue of the Paris Principles and various European instruments, NHRIs are part of states’ international obligations to the effect that: states hosting NHRI must not only refrain from imposing aggravating circumstances on NHRIs by their own means, but also protect them against threats from other actors.
As a response to the challenging environment for NHRIs, regional actors have emphasised, in the past years, the importance of ensuring that NHRIs have an enabling environment to carry out their work in an independent and effective manner.
Notably, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation on NHRIs states that “Member States should take all measures necessary to protect and support NHRIs against threats and harassment and any other forms of intimidation”, and calls on Member States to promptly and thoroughly investigate any cases of alleged reprisals or intimidation against NHRIs, and to bring perpetrators to justice.
At the European Union level, the Council Conclusions (7388/23) reiterate that NHRIs are indispensable elements in the system of checks and balances in a healthy democracy, and that “unjustified restrictions to their operating space can present a threat to the rule of law”. The existence of independent, well-resourced, and strong NHRIs is among the Council’s recommendations addressed to EU Member States for ensuring an enabling civic space. Additionally, the Council encourages Member States to be proactive in monitoring, reporting, investigating, tackling and preventing threats faced by HRDs, including NHRIs.
Threats to NHRIs often coincide with a trend of shrinking civic space and attacks to other human rights defenders. In this context, NHRIs must be supported and enabled to fulfil their broad mandate to promote and protect the rights of other HRDs. This is further stressed by the UN General Assembly which has recognised NHRIs role in protecting HRDs and called for them to be protected from attacks in undertaking this vital work.
Relying on objective international and regional standards to protect NHRIs, international and regional actors have responded, within the scope of their mandate, to threats faced by European NHRIs in the past years. This support has been positively assessed by NHRIs, and some have reported that it led to threats subsiding or, at least, to more public attention and understanding of the challenges they face.
While NHRIs should be supported once a threat occurs, the starting point remains that no NHRI should be subject to threats or attacks in the first place. For this reason, activities to support NHRIs under threat are part of a broader effort to ensure that they are provided with the conditions and environment to implement their mandates independently and effectively.
Actions that can help to prevent threats include monitoring and advocating for the implementation of NHRI standards across Europe, tackling challenges that are common to several NHRIs in the region, and promoting an enabling environment for all HRDs in Europe. In addition, NHRIs can be supported to prepare against threats by building their long-term resilience, identifying early warnings and preparing action plans for responding to threats. For example, ENNHRI’s rule of law and human rights reporting can serve to identify trends and warnings of pressure to NHRIs’ enabling space, enabling early action to build institutional resilience. Further, peer-to-peer exchange can facilitate learning on how best to deal with specific challenges and engage with UN and European human rights mechanisms.
