National human rights institutions (NHRIs)—defined generally as independent bodies, officially established by legislation or constitution with a specific mandate to protect and promote human rights—have a number of unique institutional characteristics that make them potentially effective monitors of economic and social rights:

• NHRIs have a legally defined relationship with the state, one which gives them authority to monitor compliance with international human rights norms;
• NHRIs rely on a broader set of advocacy tools than the judiciary or civil society groups—as well as a quasi-judicial competence to receive complaints and scrutinize law and practice; they provide advice, assistance and capacity building to government;
  
• Uniquely positioned between government, civil society and the UN human rights system, NHRIs can bring together various governmental and non-governmental actors;
• As permanent institutions, NHRIs are able to track issues over extended periods to identify trends in the level of rights fulfillment.

Despite their potential, NHRIs have traditionally been less active in promoting economic and social rights than civil and political rights. This may be because engaging in debates affecting employment, health, housing, social security, and education requires knowledge of how these issues manifest in practice.

Related links:

National Human Rights Institutions Forum

Toolkit for Collaboration with National Human Rights Institutions (UNDP/OHCHR, December 2010)

Equality for Women: A Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (EQUITAS, 2008)

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: a Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions (OHCHR Professional Training Series No. 12, 2005)

International Roundtable on National Institutions Implementing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (New Delhi, India, 2005)

General Comment No. 10: The role of national human rights institutions in the protection of economic, social and cultural rights (Committee on Economic and Social Rights, 1998)

Workshop report: Monitoring states’ obligation to fulfill economic, social and cultural rights: methodologies for national institutions (SHRC/CESR/KNCHR, Edinburgh, 2010)

Many NHRIs lack this requisite expertise thus hampering their potential in relation to ESC rights monitoring. Identifying appropriate supplementary methodologies and approaches for NHRIs—including building competency in fact-finding; community consultation; collecting and analyzing primary and secondary data; and interpreting economic, including budgetary, information—to address ESC rights and allocating priority to their implementation is therefore crucial. To date, however, guidance for NHRIs on these issues has been limited.

The Center for Economic and Social Rights is committed to engaging NHRIs as key stakeholders in our efforts to empower and build capacities of organizations within the human rights movement to advocate more effectively for the fulfillment of economic, social and cultural rights. In particular, CESR is working towards the development of a resource for NHRIs on using new methodologies for measuring and monitoring economic, social and cultural rights compliance.

The objective of this work is to increase the number of NHRIs worldwide producing strong and methodologically sound reports on governments’ obligation to fulfill their economic and social rights, and also to increase the number of governments acting on the recommendations of such reports. To achieve its objective, CESR is seeking to create opportunities for sharing experiences and mutual learning among NHRIs on ESCR monitoring and to support specific NHRIs in incorporating the OPERA framework in their monitoring initiatives.