National Human Rights Institutions. Criteria and Factors for Assessing Their Effectiveness

Abstract

This article seeks to examine how useful the Paris Principles are in assessing the effectiveness of National Human Rights Institutions. It will argue that while they are an appropriate starting point, they focus more on factors relevant to the establishment of such bodies, rather than how they perform once created and how they are perceived by others. Some greater thought now needs to be given to a variety of issues that render these institutions effective and to question some of the underlying presumptions on which the Paris Principles are based.