Asia-Pacifichasthirty national human rights institutions (NHRIs) as of 2018, eighteen of them were established from 2000.
Ombudsman
Several of these NHRIs were established as Ombudsman, including the Provedor for Human Rights and Justice of Timor-Leste, Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of Kazakhstan, The Human Rights Ombudsman of Tajikistan, The Kyrgyz Republic Akyikatchy, the Office of the Ombudsman of Samoa and the Ombudsman of Tuvalu.
The Provedor for Human Rights and Justice of Timor-Leste, a constitutional body, was established by law in 2004. Its mandate included functions to counter corruption and to address human rights issues. In 2009, the anti-corruption function was transferred to a new commission.1
The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Kazakhstan (The Ombudsman) has a counterpart agency – the National Centre for Human Rights. Both offices were established by the 2002 Regulation on the Commissioner for Human Rights. They constitute the NHRI structure in the country. Similar to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan has a National Human Rights Centre which works with the Oliy Majlis Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman). The government of Uzbekistan considers the Ombudsman (a parliamentary oversight office on human rights issues) as a NHRI2 but it does not seem to have the protection function.
The Kyrgyz Republic Akyikatchy (Ombudsman) was established by law in 2002. The law provides that the Akyikatchy3
shall be independent from any bodies of the public administration or officials. Interventions into activities of the Ombudsman (Akyikatchy) or any influence upon the Ombudsman (Akyikatchy) shall be prohibited and entail responsibility in accordance with the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The Akyikatchy has the power to protect human rights, prevent human rights violations, harmonize national legislations and international human rights standards, and promote legal information to the public. (Article 3)
The Ombudsman offices in Samoa and Tuvalu were given human rights mandate years after they were established. The 1990 Samoan Ombudsman Law was amended in 2013 for this purpose; while the 2006 Leadership Code (which established the Ombudsman) of Tuvalu was amended in 2017 for the same reason.
Strengthening the Commissions
Inseveral cases, laws establishing the NHRIs were amended to ensure that they have independence and sufficient power to perform their functions.
Bahrain established the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) in 2009 through Royal Order No. 46. To ensure that the NIHR is “in par with the Paris Principles,” Royal Order No. 46 was amended by Royal Order No. 28 of 2012. The NIHR, however, opined that a new law had to be enacted that would “ ensure genuine safeguards to [its] independence...”4
On 24 July 2014, the King of Bahrain issued Law No. 26 of 2014 for the “establishment of the National Institution for Human Rights, which was approved by the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives to create a real legal guarantee and provide full independence to the NIHR as well as granting it additional competencies and powers in line with the Paris Principles relating to the status of national human rights institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights.”5
On 6 October 2016, Law No. 20 of 2016 amended certain provisions of the Law No. 26 of 2014, to be able to comply with the “recommendations of the Subcommittee on Accreditation (SCA), adopted by the Global Alliance of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (GANHRI), with the intent of granting it more powers to achieve the objectives for which the NIHR was established, reflecting the Kingdom's commitment to the protection of human rights.”6
Royal Decree no. 124/2008 established the Oman National Human Rights Commission in 2008, while Royal Decree no. 10/ 2010 “ identified the commission’s members that represent various governmental and non-governmental institutions” including members representing the State Council, Shura Council, Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, General Federation of Oman Trade Unions, a member from the field of law, three representatives from nongovernmental organizations, and representatives from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Manpower, and Ministry of Civil Services.7
The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives was first established on 10 December 2003 as an independent and autonomous statutory body through a Presidential Decree. But on 18 August 2005, the People's Majlis enacted Law No: 1/2006 (Human Rights Commission's Act) that made the Human Rights Commission“a constitutionally established autonomous body.”8
Complaints Received and Acted Upon
The most recent available reports of some of these NHRIs on the complaints received (and acted upon) involved a diversity of issues and affected people. In 2013, the Oman Human Rights Commission received 146 “civil, political, social, economic, cultural, environmental and developmental complaints.”9 In 2015, the Ombudsman of Kazakhstan received complaints “mostly … about violations caused by law enforcement agencies, the actions and decisions of courts, penitentiary institutions and public administration... and 18.9 percent of violation cases were confirmed and resolved.”10
In 2017, the NIHR of Bahrain received four hundred eightyfour complaints, with fifty-one complaints related to civil and political rights, and ninety-one complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights. Nineteen complaints “concerning allegations of torture and other ill-treatment” were “communicated with the relevant bodies.” NIHR “found out that in some cases the allegations were inaccurate, whereas for the other cases, the required legal proceedings were taken by referring them to Special Investigation Unit at the Public Prosecutor Office.” It also received cases relating to “right to freedom and personal security (nineteen cases), right to fair trial (six cases), right to citizenship (two cases), and right to equality before the law (four cases). On the other hand, the ninety-one complaints received were related to right to education (one case), right to health (sixty-six cases), right to appropriate standard of living (ten cases), right to social security (three cases), right to work (six cases) and right to enjoy various rights and freedom (three cases).11
During the 2013-2018 period, the NIHR received 167 complaints of suspected trafficking in persons cases “pertaining to workers of different nationalities, most of which were complaints regarding not getting paid for their work, confiscation of their passports by the employers, or forcing them to work for additional hours in jobs different from what was agreed upon in the contracts.”12 The NIHR has several hundreds of complaints on social security issues and abuses by companies of workers’ rights.
International Accreditation
Twenty-eight of these Asia-Pacific NHRIs are members of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), while twenty-four are members of the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF).
For further information, please contact HURIGHTS OSAKA.
Endnotes
1 History, Provedor for Human Rights and Justice of TimorLeste, http://pdhj.tl/?lang=en.
2 A45, National human rights institutions, National report submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 16/21 - Uzbekistan, A/HRC/WG.6/30/UZB/1, 26 February 2018, page 5,
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/050/12/PDF/G1805012.pdf?
OpenElement.
3 Article 6. Legal Status of the Ombudsman (Akyikatchy), Law on Ombudsman (Akyikatchy) of the Kyrgyz Republic, file:///C:/Users/jeff.P/AppData/Local/Temp/Law_On_Ombudsman_Kyrgyz_2002_En.pdf.
4 Parallel Report submitted by the National Institution for Human Rights on The Initial Report of the Kingdom of Bahrain regarding the progress made in the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 2018, page 4,
www.nihr.org.bh/en/MediaHandler/GenericHandler/documents/reports/Final_CCPR%20_NIHR%20report%20%202018.pdf.
5 Ibid., page 5.
6 Ibid., page 9.
7 About NHRC, 2013-08-18, www.ohrc.om/postsen.php?DO=1718.
8 Human Rights Commission of the Maldives,
www.hrcm.org.mv/aboutus/about.aspx#Establishment.
9 Oman Human Rights Commission,
www.ohrc.om/postsen.php?DO=1733.
10 Malika Orazgaliyeva, “Kazakh Human Rights Office Received1,340 Requests for Assistance in 2015, Says New Report,” Nation, 26 February 2016.
11 Fifth Annual Report of the National Institution for Human Rights on the Progress Achieved in the Human Rights Situation in the Kingdom of Bahrain, 2017, page 55,
http://www.nihr.org.bh/en/MediaHandler/GenericHandler/documents/download/NIHR_2017_En.pdf.
12 Parallel Report submitted by the National Institution for Human Rights, op. cit., page 37.