The Human Rights Commission
was established in July 2001. It was set up as a direct result of
the Good Friday Agreement
of 1998 which provided for the establishment of a Human Rights
Commission in this jurisdiction and for a  Human
Rights Commission in Northern Ireland. Under the Good Friday Agreement,
the Commissions are charged with promoting and protecting human rights
in their respective jurisdictions and working together to improve
the protection of human rights on the island of Ireland.
The Human Rights Commission was set up under the Human
Rights Commission Acts 2000 and 2001,
which set out the powers and functions of the Commission.
Human rights commissions have been set up in countries worldwide
in order to strengthen the protection of human rights at national
and regional level. In 1993 the General Assembly of the United Nations
approved a set of principles, known as “the
Paris Principles” , with which it expects national human
rights institutions to comply. These principles provide that national
human rights commissions must be independent of government and must
have sufficient powers in order to carry out their work. Today,
the International
Co-ordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions
recognises 63 such institutions at a national level worldwide.
The Commission has drawn up a Strategic
Plan for the period 2003 - 2006. The Plan provides information
on what the Commission has done to date and the key areas of work
on which the Commission intends to focus in its future work. The
Commission uses the Plan as a key document in its dialogue with
various bodies, agencies and individuals throughout the lifetime
of the Plan. |
