By Hla Myint

GLOBAL governance of human rights started with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 1948 at the UN General Assembly. Based on the standards in the UDHR, thanks to the collective efforts of the international community, the global legal framework gradually emerged over seven decades and led to nine core human rights instruments and the provision and reflection of these standards in constitutions of a large number of countries.

The observation of these standards at national, regional and international levels is the sine qua non in the creation of effective human rights governance.

At the international level, as we all know, the international system of the promotion and protection of human rights exists strongly. At the regional level, there have been regional human rights mechanisms in a majority of regions to promote and protect human rights. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights(AICHR), the South East Asian International Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF), and the Asia Pacific Forum(APF) are acting as regional human rights mechanisms in Asia under their different terms of reference At the national level, many countries have now become state parties to certain core human rights instruments of their choice although they still face some difficulties in the full implementation of the provisions of those instruments.

The greatest challenge to the effectiveness of global governance of human rights is the continued failure of national governments to fully implement the obligations they undertake under the instruments they have ratified. In this regard, the United Nations has set up monitoring mechanisms like Treaty Body Committees, Special Procedures, etc. The General Comments or Observations of these Treaty Body Committees contain useful recommendations for State Parties to be able to correctly implement their treaty obligations. To complement these multilateral mechanisms, some regional human rights mechanisms have provisions in their enabling charters, constitutions and statutes for the monitoring of the human rights situations in the region. At the national level, some countries have established National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), based on the Paris Principles of the United Nations. Six countries in ASEAN have established national human rights institutions, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines and Timor-Leste. Currently, Cambodia is reportedly giving active consideration to the establishment of its NHRI.

These NHRIs are playing a very effective role as they are broadly mandated to monitor the human rights situation in their respective countries and to advise their national governments as and when necessary. They serve as a bridge between the government and civil society organizations while contributing to the global monitoring of human rights situations as required by their mandate.

To be effectively able to monitor how far the global human rights standards are being implemented is the most significant element of global human rights governance. Out of over 200 countries, there are only 117 NHRIs in the world contributing to this important process. It is therefore vital that some countries should give serious consideration to the establishment of national human rights institutions, thereby strengthening the global system of promoting and protecting human rights and rendering the global human rights governance more effective. GLNM