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 YEARS AFTER1

Maxwell Yalden2

A. INTRODUCTION

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

Human Rights Commission, I attended an international conference in

Paris on National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Hu-

man Rights. The meeting had been organized at the invitation of the

French government, in cooperation with the French National Commis-

sion on Human Rights3 and the UN Centre for Human Rights.4 The

agenda called for a review of patterns of cooperation bet ween national

and international institutions (such as the United Nations a nd its agen-

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

When the conference reached agreement on a declaration of prin-

ciples and criteria for the establishment and governance of National

Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), or the “Paris Principles”5 as they

came to be known, one could hardly have anticipated how extensive

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 Maxwell Yalden is a former member of the 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 systems and the international human rights 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

increasingly apparent that the eective enjoyment of human rights

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 international framework is needed to develop a worldwide assort-

ment of otherwise diverse institutions into a more coherent system in

the defence of human r ights.

B. THE BEGINNINGS

The Paris Conference was not the rst time these issues had surfaced.

It followed upon a number of earlier UN initiatives directed towards

enhancing the role of national institutions. A 1960 resolution of the

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), for example, recognized the

unique role such institutions could play in the protection and promo-

tion of human rights.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 Human Rights was held in Teheran

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

years since the adoption 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].