SALALAH: In its closing session held in Salalah, Oman, the regional forum for national human rights institutions underlined the importance of reinforcing cooperation among National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), in addition to sharing expertise in planning and following up on the implementation of national visions, in collaboration with the United Nations, and other international organizations.
The two-day forum concluded with a number of recommendations, including expanding the circle of consultations to encompass civil society organisations, particularly the primary segments that have the priority for care and engagement in all stages of national visions' relevant planning and implementation.
The event recommended the importance of unifying efforts in capacity-building areas, collecting and analysing data related to human rights and sustainable development to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of implementing human rights-based national strategies, in collaboration with stakeholders.
Chairperson of Qatar National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) HE Maryam bint Abdullah Al Attiyah underlined that the participation in the third edition of the regional forum came to highlight the superb national, regional and global cooperation with Oman Human Rights Commission, alongside the remaining partners in protecting human rights.
Attiyah emphasised the importance of reviewing the NHRIs' role in planning and following up on implementing national visions in human rights fields, especially since numerous countries have crafted national plans for human rights and national visions for development.
She added that such plans are not only dedicated to upholding international obligations, as the case with the recommendations of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action 1993, or responding to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs), but rather to innovating consistent responses to challenges and concerns facing national and global human rights, in addition to devising free, innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions, in which everyone engages without exception, including the most marginalized, vulnerable, and affected groups, so that stakeholders, can monitor the progress made, and enable rights holders to claim their rights, with duty bearers fulfilling their obligations.She added that throughout the past three decades, a global direction has emerged on human rights-based planning, along with a sheer number of human rights sectoral plans, such as labour and health.
She highlighted that every single person who reviews both the recommendations of comprehensive periodical review and the regional and international human rights commissions will see that there is no document, whatsoever, which is devoid of a recommendation related to human rights-based planning with its total and partial levels, particularly in the national visions for development.
Attiyah pointed out that the world has gone far beyond the traditional notion of development which is based on pure benevolence and economic dimensions to the concept of human rights which deems development as an expansion of human options, freedom and rights, in addition to extricating humans from the scourges of ignorance, disease and poverty.
The forum brought together over 170 persons representing more than 50 institutions, including UN organisations, alongside international and regional organisations, relevant entities, national human rights institutions, government agencies and civil society organisations.
