1. OHCHR Treaty Body Capacity Building Programme
National Mechanisms for Reporting and Follow-up Information management capacity
OHCHR Treaty Body Capacity Building Programme

2. Four key capacities of a NMRF
An effective NMRF should have the following
four key capacities:
Engagement capacity
Coordination capacity
Consultation capacity
Information management capacity
The four capacities aim to provide a conceptual framework for self-assessment of States as to what already works well and what might need improvement -to better engage with all HRMs and implementation of their recommendations; and

3. Information management capacity
The capacity to (1) track issuance of recommendations/decisions by the HRMs, (2) organize them and identify responsible entities for implementation; (3) develop human rights mechanisms recommendations implementation plan with indicators, and (4) coordinate and manage information regarding the implementation of treaty provisions and recommendations
This may include
clustering (including against SDG) and prioritizing recommendations
the use of databases
the designing of HRM recommendations implementation plans including indicators
a dedicated website and/or social media presence
In order to optimize the information management capacity, it is highly recommended to include representatives of the National Statistics Office within the NMRF.
The OHCHR Universal Human Rights Index ( and the jurisprudence database ( have strong potential as a tool for communicating recommendations and decisions to the range of domestic authorities responsible for acting, and for mainstreaming them across the efforts of all UN agencies and UN Country Teams. Additional options are the development of a specific implementation plan for the follow-up of recommendations from all international and regional human rights mechanisms, with specific timelines, indicators, and benchmarks for success or a comprehensive national human rights action plan including implementation of treaty provisions and recommendations from the United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms.

4. Information management capacity-CHECKLIST
Cluster recommendations by theme, analyse and prioritize them, and circulate clustered and prioritized recommendations among members and focal points
Keep those lists up to date
Develop, based on these clustered and prioritized lists, a HRM recommendations implementation plan (word-processing file, spreadsheet or database) or a national human rights action plan, feed into SDG implementation plan or other national action plans (as applicable) and track its implementation
If a database is used, keep it up to date, recording progress in the implementation of recommendations from human rights mechanisms, and make it public (e.g., Paraguay)
During the regular plenary meetings ask members to report back at the end of the year on how their respective ministries have implemented recommendations addressed to them in the implementation plan or national human rights action plan and what they have done to implement their pledges under the universal periodic review
Issue an annual report and make it public
Create a website and/or social media presence
If institutionally separate, include a separate directorate within the national mechanism responsible for tracking progress in the implementation of recommendations from human rights mechanisms

5. Who is tracking and what is being tracked?
Government bodies
National human rights institution
Parliamentary human rights committees
Civil society organizations
What?
International human rights system
Regional human rights system
National recommendations
UN human rights field presences

6. Sources for «what is being tracked»
The Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI)
A user-friendly search engine to find recommendations by Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures and the Universal Periodic Review:
Jurisprudence Database
A single source of the human rights recommendations and findings issued by Treaty Bodies in their work on individual cases:
Special Procedures communications database
By following the UHRI, national systems might also have the potential to link directly to the index (categories of rights and recommendations in database should follow those in UHRI) and be able to download relevant recommendations directly from the UHRI. OHCHR is developing a model generic-multilingual database linked to the UHRI and will offer this to States.
But : needs to be flexible so that database can be adapted to national context
Show on screen
TB Documents Database
Report, Reporting cycle related, Session related, Follow-up information, Summary records etc.
Jurisprudence database
Jurisprudence emanating from the United Nations Treaty Bodies which receive and consider complaints from individuals
UHRI
Managed by OHCHR since 2010
Designed primarily to facilitate access to human rights recommendations UN human rights protection system – holistic
Objective and comprehensive
Assists States in the implementation of recommendations and at facilitating follow-up
Object (no judgement)
Allows for comparison (between mechanisms and between countries, in region)
Treaty body concluding observations, Public country visits reports of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), Decisions and recommendations adopted by CERD under its early-warning and urgent action procedures, Country visit reports of Special Procedures mandate-holders, UPR recommendations + Related documents (TB, SP, UPR)
Search by several categories: State, right, body, affected person and, for the UPR, the State(s) that made the recommendation, the position of the State under Review, and the session
Rights : UDHR, core treaties and protocols + issues covered by SPs and UPR
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, and for documents indexed from mid-2011 the results are automatically converted in this search language
Structure : Right of self-determination, General framework of implementation, Equality and non-discrimination, Civil and political rights, ESC rights, Rights of specific persons or groups, Right to development, Commitment and follow-up

7. Planning and tracking tools
National Human Rights Action Plans
HRM Recommendations Implementation Plans
Sectoral / thematic National Action Plans including
SDG implementation plans/ road maps

8. National Human Rights Action Plans

9. National Human Rights Action Plans
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
The World Conference on Human Rights recommends that each State consider the desirability of drawing up a national action plan identifying steps whereby that State would improve the promotion and protection of human rights. (part II, para 71)
(1993 World Conference on Human Rights )
Vienna World Conference : NHRAP were proposed as it represents home-grown, nationally owned process, based on political, cultural and historical circumstances
Created momentum

10. National Human Rights Action Plans
NHRAPs serve to:
Provide a human rights realization roadmap
Initiate a comprehensive, realistic and coordinated response
Facilitate stakeholder cooperation and ownership from all parts of society
Identify the vulnerable and marginalized and develop targeted programmes
Place human rights improvements, as practical goals, in the context of public policy
Link human rights to existing planning processes, including development
Implement international commitments
Vienna World Conference : NHRAP were proposed as it represents home-grown, nationally owned process, based on political, cultural and historical circumstances
Created momentum

11. National Human Rights Action Plans
PROCESS…
Uses baseline study: stock-taking that identifies gaps, priorities and benchmarks
Ensures consultation and coordination within Government and among Government, national institutions, civil society and private sector
Builds partnerships
Establishes systems for monitoring and evaluation including adequate systems for data collection and analysis
 … AND PRODUCT
A strategic plan with priorities
Based on a needs assessment with benchmarks
With input and linkages to development plans
Vienna World Conference : NHRAP were proposed as it represents home-grown, nationally owned process, based on political, cultural and historical circumstances
Created momentum

12. National Human Rights Action Plans Key principles
Comprehensive and focus on gaps in human rights protection system, including vulnerable groups
Participatory - It should be an all inclusive process so as to ensure a broad ownership including civil society and excluded parts of society
Reinforce specific human rights action plans, developments plans, etc
Not a one-off but a continuous process followed by successive plans
Process and outcome oriented
Ensure political and public ownership
Vienna World Conference : NHRAP were proposed as it represents home-grown, nationally owned process, based on political, cultural and historical circumstances
Created momentum

13. National Human Rights Action Plans
Commitment to human rights
Coordinated efforts should ensure that:
authorities have a rights-based approach to their work
citizens understand their human rights and have access to effective remedies when they are violated
political processes – including budgetary – take due consideration of international standards in their decision-making
the judiciary is independent and functions well
civil society can scrutinize and criticize decision-makers in a safe and enabling environment
NHRIs can monitor independently how national legislation, policies and administrative practices comply with international obligations

14. Examples of structure NHRAP
Ethiopia
Finland

15. HRM Recommendations Implementation Plans

16. HRM Recommendations Implementation Plans
An implementation plan lists clustered and prioritized recommendations, indicating:
Responsible implementing agency
Action
Time frame
Resources
Indicators of implementation
Fundamentally different from NHRAPs in
Process
Coverage
Flexibility
Political intent
Highlight difference with NHRAP. NHRAP are made from the ground up, i.e. consultations, base line study (which includes looking at clustered and prioritized recommendations), drafting and finalization. HRM recommendations are therefore a part of the NHRAP but are used for the formulation of nationally tailored actions. In some cases, if the recommendation is very specific, could the Government copy the recommendation literally into a NHRAP action. Mostly a NHRAP will include references to HRM recommandations which have inspired the formulation of a certain action to be taken.

17. Clustering
Clustering recommendations facilitates implementation and tracking
Clustering can be done by:
Individual right
Categories of rights
SDG
Theme
Affected groups and individuals
Type of measure needed
Specific factors contribute to the effective coordination of follow-up to international and regional human rights bodies’ recommendations. Through clustering the large number of recommendations and decisions from the Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies, UPR and regional human rights mechanisms, States can establish national coherence.

18. Prioritization
Some recommendations, when clustered, might need to be prioritized:
Has the issue been identified by a TB as in need of urgent follow-up?
Do other TBs also stress the same issue?
Has the issue been emphasized in the UPR and by Special Procedures?
Can it be done without budget implications?
How is the issue prioritized at the national level (by the general public, media, civil society)?
Does the issue concern disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and individuals?
Human Rights Committee - identifies recommendations requiring immediate attention   
CAT - identifies recommendations for additional information (serious, protective, and are considered possible to accomplish within one year)

19. Implementation Period
Example
No.
Objectives
Actions
Implementation Period
Sources of financing
Responsible persons
Partners
Progress Indicators
5. Ensuring the right to education
General indicators of the implementation level:
1) access of all children to quality educational services in rural/urban areas is assured;
2) distance learning is ensured, the training mechanisms and methods are developed;
3) children left without parental care, abandoned children as a result of migration are identified;
4) programs are developed and implemented;
5) draft document to amend the normative framework is developed and adopted;
6) the study is developed and recommendations are formulated;
7) training and professional training conducted.
41.
Ensuring the access of all children to quality educational services
1) Development of the network of preschool institutions and establishment of alternative centers for pre-school education
2014
Within the limits of the budgetary allocations
Ministry of Education; Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family; National Bureau of Statistics
NGO
Number of pre-school institutions; number of alternative centers for pre-school education in rural/urban area;
enrollment rate of children in institutions (compared with 2011)
Explain how COBs could be used here
For example, CESCR could have issued a recommendation under article 13 ICESCR on the right to education. Expressing concern that children from a particular group or region do not have access to quality educational services. Recommending that the SP take steps to ensure that all children have access to quality educational services, including through the development of a network of pre-school institutions and the establishment of alternative centers for pre-school education.

20. Leveraging synergies National Human Rights Action Plans
National Human Rights Action Plans
Recommendations Implementation Plans
Focused tool for use of Government entities
Contains all HRM recommendations, thematically clustered
Development largely an internal Government process, coordinated by the National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow-up (NMRF)
Content reflects listings of clustered and prioritized recommendations
Open-ended time frame (new recommendations to be integrated)
Tracking its implementation will facilitate the periodic reporting to the HRMs
Clustered recommendations can easily be cross-linked to SDGs to build synergies and linkages between the different follow-up and reporting for SDGs and human rights
Useful tool for UNCTs to inform their CCA/UNDAF and interactions with the Government counterparts
Comprehensive, nationally owned, plan
Based on comprehensive base-line study
Development involves wide consultations (national and local Government, NHRI, civil society, general public)
Content reflects narratives on status quo, challenges, priority thematic areas, planned programs and monitoring framework
Limited time-frame (usually 4-5 years)
HRM recommendations may inform priority issues and the formulation of actions in the NHRAP (or any other national action plan including on SDG implementation), although its scope is wider and themes and actions are nationally formulated
Methodology applied in elaborating a NHRAP should be applied to development of other national action plans, e.g. for plans for SDG implementation

21. OHCHR support to enhance the information management capacity
Assist States to:
Include SDG implementation “lead agency” in NMRF
Clarify concepts and leverage synergies between HRM implementation plan, National Human Rights Action Plans, SDG implementation plans
Develop as a minimum HRM implementation plan to develop any other national action plans
Use Universal Human Rights Index (in upgraded form allowing SDG search options) or individual communications databases
Use NRTD (= SIMORE generic)