85 7 ORGANIZING NHRIs TO ACHIEVE WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY ? Does the NHRI further disaggregate complaints data by the alleged grounds of discrimination, by alleged perpetrators or by the type of alleged violations or abuses? (For example, by employment, public service, housing, etc.) ? How can the NHRI work with government statistical agencies to improve access to data about the progress of women across key areas of social and economic well-being? 7.9 NHRI ACCESSIBILITY NHRIs must be accessible to all people, but women may face particular barriers to reach these institutions. These obstacles include lack of financial resources for travel, limited access to transportation, restrictions imposed by working hours or the opening hours of NHRIs and lack of childcare, as well as cultural or social factors that can make filing complaints or even attending NHRI offices problematic, or even impossible. Women from vulnerable groups, such as refugees, migrant workers or persons with disabilities, may face particular difficulties, such as linguistic or cultural barriers, that may dissuade them from coming forward to report human rights violations. These issues can be addressed at least in part by the NHRIs, through the establishment of flexible opening hours, some form of childcare space for complainants and the possibility to receive information and file complaints via the Internet or a telephone hotline. NHRIs should aim to ensure that their offices are located not only in capital cities, but also in regional or rural areas, and that they are easy to reach on foot or by public transportation. Some NHRIs set up mobile clinics and convene meetings throughout the country on a regular basis to reach out to poor, rural or minority Example The Canadian Human Rights Commission has developed a Framework for Documenting Equality Rights as a tool for researchers and human rights activists to use in assessing progress in equality rights, including women’s rights, violence against women and a number of other socio-economic dimensions of women and men. The Framework does not actually analyze the data but, rather, provides information about what data are available, the extent to which the data can be disaggregated by grounds such as sex or type of alleged discrimination or abuse. The objective is to inform readers, researchers and human rights advocates about how to use available statistical data in their research. SURVEY RESULTS 50% of NHRIs reported that they offered specific measures to ensure that their institutions are accessible to women, for example, by adjusting office hours or providing childcare in the office.