F. D ocumentation centres As national focal points for human rights, NHRIs should be a depository for both national and international human rights documents. Some have created documentation centres to ensure that human rights material is maintained, catalogued and available. They are a useful reference source for NHRI members and staff as well as for the public, including students, scholars and human rights workers. Moreover, where other documentation centres exist, for example in UNDP offices, universities or human rights NGOs, areas of specialization can be agreed on, as can protocols for the sharing of information. Setting up and running a documentation centre requires the skills of an information manager, the creation and maintenance of an appropriate classification system, and facilities for reading, writing and copying. Sufficient resources will be needed for all of these. Institutions that do not have the space and resources for such a centre should consider a simple online database through their website. A virtual documentation centre with materials and links can thus be created, at considerably less expense than a physical archive. In addition to serving as access points for their own material, NHRIs should collect and make available a wide variety of human rights material produced regularly by the United Nations and other international, regional and national organizations. Many of these are produced in several languages and accessible to the general population. In addition to their own material, NHRIs should have at their disposal the following core information: ■■ International human rights instruments and standards (including information on ratifications and reservations by the State in question); ■■ Reports of the State to treaty bodies and concluding observations made by treaty bodies on those reports; ■■ Information and training materials developed internationally, regionally and nationally in specific human rights areas; ■■ Domestic human rights legislation and administrative and judicial decisions on its interpretation or application; ■■ Information on domestic mechanisms for the protection of human rights (including other NHRIs, parliamentary commissions, ministerial committees and NGOs); ■■ Information on the structure and functioning of international implementation mechanisms; and ■■ Human rights studies and reports from ministries, NGOs and international organizations. Much of this information can be obtained from intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, government departments and NGOs. National human rights institutions can ask to be put on the mailing lists of many human rights organizations. They can also ask to become a depository for human rights documentation from the United Nations and regional human rights bodies. 72