GANHRI defers NHRC accreditation

• For the second time in a decade, the N.-recognised Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) has deferred the accreditation of National Human Rights Commission of India.
• It cited objections like political interference in appointments, involving the police in probes into human rights violations, and poor cooperation with civil society.
• The United Nations’ Paris Principles, adopted in 1993 by the U.N. General Assembly, provide the international benchmarks against which National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) can be accredited.

ABOUT GANHRI

• Established in 1993 as International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for promotion and protection of human rights (ICC).
• Highest deliberative body is General Assembly.
• The Bureau is the GANHRI’s executive committee. It is comprised of 16 members, 4 from each of GANHRI regional networks of Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
• HQ: Geneva, Switzerland
• The GANHRI consists of sixteen, ‘A’ status NHRIs, 4 from each region.
  • ‘A’ status accreditation also grants participation in the work and decision-making of the GANHRI, as well as the work of the Human Rights Council and other U.N. mechanisms.
• The GANHRI, through the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) is responsible for reviewing and accrediting NHRIs in compliance with the Paris Principles every five years.

ABOUT NHRC

• NHRC of India is an independent statutory body established on 12 October, 1993 as per provisions of Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993(later amended in 2006).
• HQ- New Delhi.
• It is the watchdog of human rights in the country, i.e. the rights related to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by Indian Constitution or embodied in the international covenants and enforceable by courts in India.
• It was established in conformity with the Paris Principles.
• With respect to GANHRI accreditation
  • It has been accredited as an ‘A’ Status NHRI since the beginning of the accreditation process for NHRIs in 1999, which it retained in 2006, 2011, and in 2017.
  • In 2016, NHRC’s accreditation was deferred by a year and later in its recommendations in 2017 GANHRI asked the NHRC to address its lack of diversity (regarding women representatives from other marginalised social groups).
  • An amendment to Protection of Human Rights Act in 2019 sought to address these concerns. It increased members of NHRC and made chairpersons of National Commission for Backward Classes and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities deemed members of NHRC.