OSCE meeting calls for strong, independent human rights bodies to bridge gap between government, citizens

VILNIUS, 13 July 2011 – Strong and independent national human rights institutions are essential for bridging the gap between government and civil society, speakers said at the opening today of a special OSCE meeting on the topic.

The OSCE’s Lithuanian Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organized the two-day conference, which focuses on ways to strengthen the role of such institutions in promoting respect for human rights. More than 100 representatives of national human rights institutions, civil society, governments and parliaments are taking part .   

Asta Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė, the Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, stressed that a fast-changing and ever-more complex world confronts governments with an increasing number of challenges they cannot handle on their own.

As a result, communication between civil society and government too often breaks down, she added:  “In this process human rights suffer; the society as a whole suffers. The establishment and empowerment of national human rights institutes provides an institutionalized, independent focal point and physical location for communication and collaboration by government and civil society to take place.”

Empowering national human rights agencies is one of the priorities of Lithuania’s OSCE Chairmanship in 2011. Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė said that the OSCE’s work in this area could serve as a basis for a possible decision on strengthening commitments on national human rights institutions at the Organization’s Ministerial Council to take place in December in Vilnius.

Ambassador Janez Lenarčič, the Director of ODIHR, said national human rights institutions should act as watchdogs of governments’ implementation of their human rights obligations.

“This does not mean only criticizing governments; instead it means working closely with the government and to engage with it. But the role of national human rights institutions is also to bridge the often existing communication gap between governments and civil society,” he said.

Rosslyn Noonan, Chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions, said that governments that establish independent national human rights institutions send strong signals that they are serious about promoting and protecting human rights. “An effective national human rights institution is increasingly not only a desirable, but a necessary feature of the State, just as human rights underpin good governance, justice and sustainable economic development,” she said.

Building on recommendations made at an earlier OSCE conference on the issue in April in Vienna, the meeting focuses on the interaction of national human rights institutions with national parliaments, the executive branch of governments, the judiciary and civil society.

National human rights institutions exist in 41 of the OSCE’s 56 participating States.