■■ Persons with disabilities34 ■■ Persons living with HIV/AIDS ■■ Racial and national minorities ■■ Refugees and internally displaced persons35 ■■ Women.36 With the coming into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, NHRIs are actively encouraging Governments to ratify and implement it, and are playing a monitoring role. Article 33 (2) more particularly calls on States parties to: maintain, strengthen, designate or establish within the State Party, a framework, including one or more independent mechanisms, as appropriate, to promote, protect and monitor implementation of the present Convention. When designating or establishing such a mechanism, States Parties shall take into account the Principles relating to the status and functioning of national human rights institutions for protection and promotion of human rights. (Emphasis added). 6. National human rights institutions and economic, social and cultural rights Not all NHRIs mandates cover economic, social and cultural rights. Those NHRIs that do have such a mandate have a responsibility that spans both promotion and protection, unless the enabling law says otherwise. Economic, social and cultural rights present particular difficulties, because they tend to be eclipsed by the shorter-term and more urgent demands of civil and political rights violations, especially when it comes to protection. Moreover, it is not always easy to tackle such complex rights that require long-term approaches and “positive” Government action, usually programme development and spending. Many of the legal standards are set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and in other relevant human rights instruments. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its general comment No. 10 (1998), details the roles that NHRIs play in protecting and promoting these rights: – Promoting educational and information programmes designed to enhance awareness and understanding of economic, social and cultural rights, both among the public at large and among particular groups, such as the public service, the judiciary, the private sector and the labour movement; – Scrutinizing existing laws, administrative acts, draft bills and other proposals to ensure that they are consistent with the requirements of the Covenant; – Providing technical advice or undertaking surveys in relation to economic, social and cultural rights; For a discussion on the role played by NHRIs in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, see Michael Ashley Stein and Janet E. Lord, “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a vehicle for social transformation”, in National Monitoring Mechanisms of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Mexico City, Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos de México, 2008). Trilingual publication available from www.nhri.net. 35 National human rights institutions can play both promotion and protection roles: (a) by supporting the right to humanitarian assistance and (b) through human rights monitoring, which can help in needs assessments and strategic planning as a basis for effective assistance programmes (for example, monitoring of the right to food, shelter, health care and education of vulnerable groups, and identifying crucial protection gaps). 36 See Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 6 (1988) on effective national machinery and publicity. See also Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2002). 34 26