particular help. The NHRI in the Maldives has for instance asked the UNFPA Country Office for technical assistance to carry out such training and the NHRIs in Bangladesh and Nepal both plan to develop an internal orientation programme on reproductive rights with expertise drawn from UNFPA, NGOs and government. In addition to UNFPA, women’s commissions, women’s groups, health professionals and academic institutions for example will often have relevant information to share on reproductive rights.3 Practice can also generate learning and knowledge. Once the basic knowledge is available, there is no reason why a NHRI should not start working within reproductive rights and then expand its knowledge in parallel to working within the area. 6. Given that reproductive rights are a constellation of rights that straddle several of the basic human rights instruments, their scope and meaning is not always clear. Consequently, once some initial knowledge has been acquired, it might be advisable to prepare a position paper or a policy document, setting out the NHRI’s understanding and position on reproductive rights and how the NHRI plans to promote and protect these rights in practice. On this basis, the NHRI could make a plan for its first goals and corresponding activities within the field of reproductive rights. 7. Another question concerns the administrative assignment of the responsibility for reproductive rights. Should the NHRI 3 Working with such groups was a recommendation from the UNFPA Asia-Pacific Forum in Kuala Lumpur 20-21 June 2011. 36 set up a new department or unit or focal point focusing on reproductive rights, or should reproductive rights rather be split up and dealt with by existing departments, for instance departments dealing with women’s rights, children’s rights and the right to health? An example of the latter approach is the NHRI in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. If reproductive rights are placed in, for example, the women’s rights department, it is important to remember to cover also the issues that might not normally fall within the ambit of the department, such as the reproductive rights of men. Some NHRIs are not organized around substantive human rights but rather based on the different tasks set out in the Paris Principles, with one department dealing with complaints, another with monitoring, one with education etc. In such a case, reproductive rights must be anchored in all departments. The NHRI in Uganda deals with reproductive rights in several of its directorates, including the Directorate of Monitoring and Inspections but also has units such as the Health Unit and the Vulnerable Person’s Unit that are involved in reproductive rights. Some NHRIs might find that they can have more impact if one department is dedicated to work on reproductive rights. Others may decide, perhaps due to the controversial aspects of reproductive rights, to link the work to other interventions. How the government deals with reproductive rights is a factor to take into consideration: Working with reproductive rights in a way that mirrors