“NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS & THE DOMESTIC IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS”

Please join us for a lunchtime discussion of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) with Dr. Raj Kumar, Dean of Jindal Global Law School and Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University.  The fact that international human rights laws have been enshrined in national constitutions has strongly shaped the development of NHRIs,  which aim to ensure the domestic protection of human rights, in many countries.  While there is a high degree of consensus on what NHRIs should do, their actual performance and institutional effectiveness vary significantly from country to country. A number of NHRIs have acquired national and international legitimacy for their work in protecting and promoting human rights, others reveal how government institutions can legitimize actions that contravene human rights.

Professor Kumar’s talk will focus on the role of NHRIs and their effectiveness in relation to the domestic implementation of human rights. NHRIs are not panacea for all human rights problems in a society but rather tend to be effective only under a given set of circumstances and can demonstrate institutional approaches to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights.​ The future of human rights implementation will depend to some extent on the empowerment of NHRIs and their relationship with other democratic institutions and civil society.

Sponsored by the Human Rights Institute, Rightslink and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights.