8 CONCLUSIONS AND WAY FORWARD
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female complainants, and this is an area for improvement in almost one-third
of NHRIs in the OSCE region.
Knowledge management
Slightly more than half (52 per cent) of NHRIs say that they use annual reports
to publicize data and research about women’s rights in their jurisdictions. An
even smaller number (23 per cent) reportedly publish thematic reports on women’s issues or gender equality. Although this is clearly an area that could be
improved upon, there are several interesting and progressive reports on issues
that have been identified as priorities in the OSCE region. These include reports
and studies on women and public life in elected office, analyses of human trafficking and surveys of the participation of women in public office.
Although 85 per cent of NHRIs reported that they collect and publish sex-disaggregated data of some sort, 30 per cent do not publish any of their own data,
and only 38 per cent use national statistics as part of their analytic framework.
Capacity-building in the latter could highly benefit NHRIs.
NHRI Accessibility
This section dealt, in part, with the extent to which women use NHRIs and
the relationship between this factor and NHRIs’ own accessibility. About half
of NHRIs report that they have measures to ensure the accessibility of their
organization and/or their offices. However, relatively little information was
provided as to specific measures taken beyond the adjustment of office hours,
and this could be an area for future follow-up.
Information provided by NHRIs early in the project suggested that a relatively
small number of women come forward to file complaints in certain OSCE participating States. Although the connection between this observation and the
NHRI accessibility is speculative, three of the five priority areas identified by
NHRIs are not areas where human rights complaints are likely to be filed. For
example, women’s participation in political and public life is an issue for systemic examination and reporting, but it is not one where complaints are traditionally filed. Similarly, violence against women and human trafficking tends
to warrant criminal law enforcement rather than human rights complaints, for
obvious reasons. But this also points to the critical importance of systemic initiatives on both the protection and the promotional side, such as public inquiries and investigations, as well as research and publications.
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