The Paris Principles Twenty Years After

• Author: Maxwell Yalden
• Profession: Former member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee
• Pages: 191-206

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chapter 7

THE PARIS PRINCIPLES

TWENTY YE ARS AFTER1

Maxwell Yalden2

A. INTRODUCTION

In October 1991, in my capacit y as Chief Commissioner of the Can adian

Human Right s Commission, I at tended an inter national con ference in

Paris on Nationa l Instit utions for the Promot ion and Protect ion of Hu-

man Right s. The meeting h ad been organi zed at the invitation of the

French government , in cooperation with the French Nationa l Commis-

sion on Human Right s3 and the UN Cent re for Human Rig hts.4 The

agenda calle d for a review of patter ns of cooperation bet ween nationa l

and international ins titutions (such a s the United Nations a nd its agen-

cies) and an exploration of way s of increasing their e ectiveness.

When the confere nce reached agreement on a dec laration of pri n-

ciples and criter ia for the establ ishment and gover nance of Nationa l

Human Right s Instit utions (NHRI s), or the “Paris Pri nciples”5 as they

came to be known , one could hardl y have anticipated how e xtensive

1 The author is i ndebted to Karen Ha milton and John Dw yer, and to Sulin i

Saruga ser-Hug and other ocials of t he Canadian Hu man Rights Comm is-

sion, for their c ontributions to t his article.

2 Ma xwell Yalden is a f ormer member of t he United Nations Hu man Rights

Committee.

3 La Commission nation ale consultat ive française d es droits de l’homme.

4 Later replaced by the Oce o f the High Commis sioner for Human Rig hts.

5 Properly known as t he Principles Relating to the Stat us of National Institu-

tions, annex to N ational Institutions f or the Promotion and Prot ection of Hu-

man Rights, CHR Res 54 , UNESCOR, Supp No 2, UN Doc E/1992/22, (1992); GA

Res 48/134, UNGAOR, 48th Ses s (1993) Annex [Paris P rinciples].

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their impac t would be in the eld of human ri ghts. With the passage of

time, the essent ial place of the Principles a nd of the NHRIs that brid ge

domestic system s and the inter national hu man right s regime has be -

come evident. The Oce of t he High Commissioner for Human R ights

itself recogn ized their importance a s early as 1993: “It has . . . become

increasin gly apparent th at the eective e njoyment of human r ights

calls for t he establishment of nationa l infrastruc tures for their protec-

tion and prom otion.”6

In the twent y years since that observ ation, reliance on national i nsti-

tutions has cont inued to grow. It has also become inc reasingly clear t hat

an interna tional fra mework is needed to develop a worldw ide assort-

ment of otherwi se diverse in stitutions i nto a more coherent system i n

the defence of human r ights.

B. THE BEGINNINGS

The Paris Con ference was not the  rst time thes e issues had su rfaced.

It followed upon a number of earl ier UN init iatives dire cted towards

enhanci ng the role of nationa l instit utions. A 1960 resolution of the

Economic and Socia l Council (ECOSOC), for example, recog nized the

unique role such in stitution s could play in the protec tion and promo-

tion of human rig hts.7 It went on to invite governments to encourage

the creation and de velopment of such bodies, and to commu nicate their

ideas on the subject t o the Secretary-Ge neral.

The rst World Conference on Huma n Rights wa s held in Teheran

from 22 April to 13 May 1968, to review t he progress made in the twent y

years since the a doption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

and to formulat e a programme for the futur e. It approved the Proclama-

tion of Teheran,8 wh ich, inter alia, rear med that:

6 Oc e of the High Commis sioner for Human Rig hts, “Fact Sheet No. 19:

National In stitutions for t he Promotion and Pro tection of Human Ri ghts”

(Geneva: OHCHR, Apr il 1993) [“Fact Sheet No 19”], online: OHCHR www.

ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet19en.pdf.

7 United Nations Economic and So cial Council , Resolutions of National Adv i-

sory Committees on Human R ights, E/30, UNESCOR, 30th Sess , Supp No 1, UN

Doc E/3422, (1960) 14.

8 P roclamation of Teheran, Final Act of the I nternational Conference o n Hu-

man Rights, Teheran 22 Apr il to 13 May, 1968, UNGAOR, 1968, UN Doc A/

CONF.32/41, 3 [Teheran Proclamation].