INTRODUCTION Supporting this delicate balance, while ensuring that the central and core elements of NHRIs’ functions – promotion and protection of human rights - are achieved effectively, is an overarching theme of this Toolkit. Providing UNCT staff with the tools to do this work is its central goal. As well, other members of the UN system will have an interest in furthering their understanding of how to work with NHRIs. Indeed, UN inter-agency cooperation is integrated into the Toolkit, in order to reflect ongoing UN reform efforts to assist countries to strengthen national protection systems and thus advance human rights at  the country level. UN inter-agency cooperation The Secretary-General’s 2002 report on UN reform, the UN High Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence, and the 2005 World Summit have expressed a desire to foster greater UN inter-agency cooperation in advancing human rights.4 This has become a topic of inter-agency concern. There is a need to foster UN inter-agency cooperation in supporting and collaborating with NHRIs. While both UNDP and OHCHR are the lead agencies in supporting NHRIs, it is also important for other UN agencies, to strengthen engagement with NHRIs in achieving common goals. In relevant instances, the Toolkit highlights those areas where their participation brings a clear comparative advantage in terms of expertise. For instance, an NHRI could collaborate with UNODC on maladministration and anti-corruption issues, UNIFEM on women’s rights, UNICEF on child rights, and the UNHCR on the protection of refugees and displaced persons. NHRIs can benefit from the presence of standard-setting organisations in particular, such as ILO, UNESCO, and the WHO, to reinforce linkages between their human rights-related conventions and the NHRIs’ operational activities. The diversity of mandates of the UN system should be promoted as a source of strength for the benefit of NHRIs and as a way to bringing together the entire range of analytical, normative and technical expertise of the UN family. This Toolkit looks at a range of strategies to achieve this goal. These types of collaborations can increase the impact and coherence of outcomes and provide richer and more holistic UNCT assessments and responses to the country’s needs. Considering human rights promotion and protection within the relevant social and cultural context can result in better understanding of complex situations, while increasing the likelihood of popular acceptance of the NHRI’s work. Rationale There is a good deal of documentation on “what” should be done during the establishment and consolidation phases of NHRIs, especially from a theoretical perspective. Several documents look at “how” NHRIs should function, and “what” should be considered by the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions when it accredits NHRIs.5 There is, however, no practical tool at present that guides United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) on “how” to support NHRIs in the context of the UN country planning process, including the timing and development of technical assistance projects to develop or assess capacity, how to identify challenges and opportunities for NHRIs, or how to discern issues that lie beneath the surface and threaten and/or undermine the effective and efficient functioning of NHRIs. It has been noted that there is a need to strengthen capacity for human rights programming at the level of the UNCT, and to boost facilitation skills, while strategies for generating debate are also especially needed. In some UNCTs, resources are often lacking at all levels. Further, there is a limit to the quality of expertise available to both UNCTs and to programme countries from the UN system, which vary considerably. These factors constrain the effectiveness of the UN system’s response at the country level.6 See Secretary-General, Strengthening the United Nations: An Agenda for Further Change, UN GAOR, 57th Sess., UN Doc. A/57/397 (2002); 2005 World Summit Outcome, GA Res. 60/1, UN GAOR, 60th Sess., UN Doc. A/RES/60/1 (2005). 4 See OHCHR, “Guidance Note: National Human Rights Institutions and the Work of OHCHR at Headquarters and Field Level.” December 2007 (National Institutions Unit); “Information Note: The Role of The UNCT in Establishing or Strengthening a National Human Rights Institution.” April 2007. 5 C. Castañeda. “Relevant Findings on UNCTS, Human Rights & Capacity Development.” October 2008. The author notes that findings are based on extracts of the following documents: “Report of the Second Interagency Workshop on Implementing a HRBA in the Context of the UN Reform”, Stamford, USA, 5-7 May 2003; “Mainstreaming Human Rights. The Human Rights-Based Approach and the United Nations System, Desk Study Prepared for UNESCO”, André Frankovits, Human Rights Council of Australia, 2005; “Synthesis Report of the Global Review OHCHR Technical Cooperation Programme”; “Results-Based Management and the UNDAF Results Matrix”, UNSSC; Resident Coordinator Annual Report 2007, UN, “Common Country Assessment and United Nations Development Assistance Framework. Guidelines for UN country Teams on Preparing a CCA and UNDAF”, February 2007; UNDG; “Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of Operational Activities of the United Nations Development System: Conclusions and Recommendations”, 62 Session of the General Assembly, 2007; and “Synthesis Report: Finding and Recommendations from a Seven Country Study of UN Engagement in Poverty Reduction and National Development Strategies”, prepared for the UNDG by Martin Greeley, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, March 2008. 6 vii