Human Rights Law Centre

Strategic Planning and Human Rights Training for Commissioners and Staff of Bahrain's National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)

Project Overview

Building upon a capacity-building training that took place in October 2013 in Nottingham, the main focus of the programme was to engage the NIHR Commissioners and the Commission staff in a dialogue and reflections about the NIHR's Strategic Plans.

This three-day tailored training programme comprised two principal components: strategic planning for Commissioners, and human rights training for Commission staff. The former was delivered by adopting a comparative approach to the experiences of other national commissions. The latter provided an overview of international human rights law. Participants included Commissioners and Commission staff. In addition, representatives from the Commission of the Rights of Detainees and Prisoners as well as NGOs took part in several meetings.

The training programme provided participants with an opportunity to engage in dialogue with expert practitioners with significant experience of strategic planning for other national commissions. By focusing on principles of best practice, by comparing the experience of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the participants reflected upon strategies for complaints procedures, working with civil society and NGOs, evaluating progress on economic and social rights and preparing for Bahrain's Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council.

In addition to this, HRLC provided members of the Commission and Commission staff with training on human rights, which focused upon the development of the international human rights treaty system and the United Nations human rights system.

The dialogue between course participants and the expert training team facilitated a critical review, analysis and assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by the Institution for consideration in future planning.

 

Project Information

Dates: 23-25 February 2014

Location: Manama, Bahrain

Unit: Short Courses and Training

Core staff: Professor Dominic McGoldrick, Agnes Flues

 

Training team: 

  • Professor Dominic McGoldrick, Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham;
  • John Kissane, International Consultant;
  • Randa Siniora, Executive Director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, Palestine.
 

 

Human Rights Law Centre

School of Law
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

+44 (0)115 846 8506
hrlc@nottingham.ac.uk