• International activity and experience. These ideas are based on work that has taken place both in the development of specific national plans by a number of countries and in international discussions of the issue. The Handbook is intended to be a reasonably self-contained introduction to the process of developing national action plans. Any country embarking on such a process will, of course, be working within its own legal and policy environment. But it is hoped that the information about national action plans provided in the Handbook will help them to gain from the experiences of others, to draw on international thinking on the issue and to develop a plan that is comprehensive and effective. In this way, new plans may be developed as current international best practice, rather than on an ad hoc basis. 1.5 Who is this Handbook for? OHCHR has prepared this Handbook to assist people and institutions working on, or interested in, national human rights action plans. They include individuals and organizations representing government, civil society, national human rights institutions, the judiciary, the academic world and many other sectors as well as the general community. Government officials who find the Handbook useful will include not only those working in justice or foreign affairs ministries but also officials working on issues such as health, education, housing or social policy more generally. This applies also to the civil society counterparts of government agencies. In addition, the Handbook should be of interest to parliamentarians as a comprehensive overview of issues relevant to legislative and public policy processes in the field of human rights. The Handbook will be useful for officials and civil society representatives working in three broad sectors: • The primary audience will be those working on the development of new national action plans. The Handbook will inform them of the principles and processes involved and the experiences of other countries. • The Handbook will also be useful to governments and civil society in countries where national plans have already been developed. By providing additional information on the concept and implementation of national action plans, the Handbook may guide further implementation and continuous improvement. • A third target group is governments and private institutions that wish to provide funds for technical assistance programmes in the field of human rights. The Handbook provides a comprehensive approach to human rights promotion and protection. National action plans set up as result of the Handbook’s guidance will contain numerous proposals for activities that could be supported by technical cooperation programmes from donor governments or private foundations. 4