Guidebook 4. CONCLUSIONS Choose your intervention strategically and make full use of all the tools at your disposal Some NHRIs replied that they had not undertaken any activities on the rights of suspects and accused because they receive hardly any individual complaints on these issues. • NHRIs have a broad and multi-functional mandate and should conduct a variety of activities to promote and protect the rights of suspects and accused, spanning from research, training and education, to monitoring visits and complaint handling; from advising the State on the adoption of a new legal instrument to monitoring the practical application of such laws in the domestic context. • NHRIs should make full use of EU laws and procedures to promote and protect human rights. EU law has become an important source of human rights standards and EU NHRIs should more strategically look into the opportunities that EU laws and procedure offer to promote and protect human rights. • Further training on the use EU law instruments to promote and protect the rights of suspects and accused in criminal proceedings would be beneficial. 5. Coordinate and cooperate with other domestic actors to increase impact Several NHRIs stated that they have not (yet) worked on the rights of suspects and accused because other bodies (eg, NPMs, Ombudsinstitutions for children) exist in the national context, which are more suited to deal with those issues. • The breadth and flexibility of the mandate of NHRIs mean that they could use it to reinforce and complement the work of others, for example by following up their recommendations or undertaking awareness raising activities, such as training, education. • Although this will always depend on the national context, our research showed that there are a number of areas where the cooperation of an NHRI in the field of procedural rights of suspects and accused may bring a specific added value, including: »» Promotion activities and public awareness »» Training and capacity building »» Drafting opinions on laws/draft laws »» Monitoring places of detention, especially if no specialized monitoring body exists; but also in order to complement the work of other specialised bodies or departments with OPCAT and CRPD mandate, e.g. by conducting joint visits. »» Participation before courts, e.g. appeals for constitutionality review before constitutional courts, and third party interventions before national, regional and international courts These powers could be particularly useful to complement the work of other domestic human rights bodies or departments within the same organisation and can contribute to the strengthening of procedural rights. Moreover, although professional associations and lawyers have been identified as a particularly strong partner in the promotion and protection of procedural safeguards, many NHRIs mentioned that cooperation is often lacking or difficult. • Initiatives facilitating exchange with professional associations and NHRIs on procedural safeguards of suspects and accused can further enhance the promotion and protection of those rights • NHRIs are ideally placed to play a coordination role between the domestic actors, acting a bridge between the different actors involved in the field. 108 109