Why in news?

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is preparing to defend its human rights processes at a meeting to be held in Geneva. In this meeting a decision on whether India’s human rights body will retain its “A status” is expected to be made.

The meeting of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the UN-recognised Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) worldwide will be held on May 1.

What’s in today’s article?

• National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
• Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI)

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC):

• About
• It is a statutory body established under Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
• The Commission is the watchdog of human rights in India.
• Composition of NHRC

• The Commission is a multi-member body consisting of a chairperson and five members.
• The chairperson should be a retired chief justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court.
• Members should be a serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court, a serving or retired chief justice of a high court and three persons (out of which at least one should be a woman) having knowledge or practical experience with respect to human rights.
• Appointment & Tenure
• The chairperson and members are appointed by the President on the recommendations of a six-member committee consisting of:
• Prime Minister as its head; Speaker of the Lok Sabha; Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha; Leaders of the Opposition in both the Houses of Parliament; Central Home Minister
• The chairperson and members are appointed for the term of 3 years or till the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
• The chairperson and members are eligible for reappointment.

Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI)

• About
  • It is an organisation affiliated to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  • It is a global network of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) that works to promote and protect human rights.
    • GANHRI represents 120 NHRIs from around the world.
  • GANHRI's mission is to unite, promote, and strengthen NHRIs to operate in line with the UN Paris Principles.
• Accreditation by the GANHRI
  • Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) reviews NHRIs every five years, and there is an appeal process for NHRIs to ensure greater transparency and due process.
  • In a unique peer-review-based accreditation process. GANHRI ensures individual NHRIs’ compliance with the Paris Principles – to ensure their independence, pluralism and accountability.
    • The Paris Principles set out internationally agreed minimum standards that NHRIs must meet to be considered credible.
    • The six principles require a country‘s human rights agency to be independent from the government in its structure, composition, decision-making and method of operation.
  • An NHRI is reviewed by the SCA when –
    • It applies for initial accreditation
    • It applies for re-accreditation every five years
    • The circumstances of the NHRI change in any way that may affect its compliance with the Paris Principles.
  • NHRIs that are assessed as complying with the Paris Principles are accredited with ‘A status’, while those that partially comply are accredited with ‘B status’.
    • This accreditation status affects a country’s ability to vote at the UN Human Rights Council and some UNGA bodies.
• India’s accreditation
  • India’s NHRC got ‘A’ status of accreditation for the first time in 1999, which it retained in 2006, 2011, and in 2017 after it was deferred for a year.

India’s accreditation status under review

• Background
  • The NHRC’s ratings were put on hold in 2023 over concerns on:
    • composition procedure,
    • presence of police personnel in human rights investigations, and
    • lack of gender and minority representation.
  • Now, on May 1, 2024, NHRC’s performance will again be reviewed in order to decide on the accreditation status.
• Observations made by the review committee in 2023
  • According to a six-point submission by the SCA in March 2023, the NHRC has failed to create conditions required to be able to operate independent of government interference.
  • In the submission, the committee had slammed India for the involvement of police officers in its investigative process, calling it a conflict of interest.
  • It also cited the lack of pluralism and gender representation, given the NHRC had only one woman in its top body, an institutional ex-officio representative of the National Commission for Women.
  • The SCA had also pointed out that the composition of the committee should reflect the diversity of the society it operated in.
    • It indicated the lack of any member representing India’s largest minority religions.