The First Global Network on National Human Rights Action Planning
4 – 6 June 2025, School of Law and Social Justice.
Dr Azadeh Chalabi and her team, as part of a funded project by UK-RI (Policy Support Fund), have created the first global network on National Human Rights Action Planning. The objective is to create a lasting platform to share good practices, challenges and possible response strategies to enhance the effectiveness of National Human Rights Action Plans (NHRAPs) in different phases. It is intended to lay the ground for the network to embark upon a self-amplifying process to tackle the dynamic challenges facing NHRAPs across the globe.
Background
In 2017, in a historic move, the UN General Assembly marked National Human Rights Action Plans as one of the ‘key elements’ of every national human rights system and strongly encouraged the states to adopt such plans systematically and in a participatory process (2017, A/72/351). The idea of adopting a NHRAP was put forward, in the Vienna Declaration in 1993, as a response strategy to (a) the lack of consensus on how to put human rights, as embodied in international human rights law, into practice in a coherent, comprehensive (not selective) and systematic way, and (b) to the need for a more proactive tool than merely enacting bills of rights and offering judicial remedies (which are more reactive). Since 2017, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has systematically called upon states to adopt a NHRAP in their Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) (Lorion 2022). As of today, at least 155 NHRAPs have been adopted in 80 countries, with 35 countries having adopted more than one plan, and more than 30 plans are in the process of development.
Membership and diversity
This newly established global network involves members from more than 35 countries across all the five continents. This is an inclusive and non-binding network. It involves representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and academics who have been involved in any phases of NHRAPing or are in a position to consider developing such plans.
Other members of this network include the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe (including the European Commissioner for Human Rights), the European Court of Human Rights, UN Population Fund, and the UN Development Programme.
This initiative seeks to complement other relevant initiatives and networks on implementing human rights such as NMIRFs.
The biggest international gathering of experts on NHRAPing
We are organising a three-day workshop 4th-6th of June 2025 at University of Liverpool, School of Law and Social Justice with the theme of 'Uncovering 30 Years of NHRAPing: Lessons from the Five Continents'. This workshop will be the biggest international gathering of experts on national human rights action planning and will mark the first meeting of the members of this global network. It is hoped that this will be the beginning of a lasting platform.
You can download the programme below:
Contact
If you have any questions, please send an email to NHRAPnetwork@liverpool.ac.uk or directly contact Dr Azadeh Chalabi, the founder of the network, at a.chalabi@liverpool.ac.uk.
