OSCE/ODIHR Opinion on the Draft Amendments to the Act on Establishment of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights Amendments, meaning that this power also relates to its human rights mandate. At the same time, as stated above, legislation needs to be carefully crafted to avoid any overlap with the mandate of other institutions, in particular, the Public Defender of Rights. 3.2 Specific Functions of the SNCHR 26. As regards specific functions, one of the recommendations from the SCA from its assessment of the SNCHR, in 2014, was for the Centre to advocate for changes to its mandate to explicitly include the powers to: a. Submit to the Government opinions, recommendations, proposals and reports on any matters concerning human rights; b. Promote and ensure harmonization of national legislation, regulations and practices with the international human rights instruments to which the State is a party; c. Encourage ratification or accession to international human rights instruments; d. Create awareness of human rights norms through teaching, research and addressing public opinion; and e. Effectively investigate complaints of human rights violations.35 27. §1 (2) (e), (f) and (g) of the Draft Amendments provide the SNCHR with the mandate to submit opinions, recommendations and proposals for legislative as well as nonlegislative measures to the government, the National Council and public administration bodies. . It is further recommended for this provision to also explicitly state that the Centre’s opinions and recommendations in this area can include opinions and recommendations on the legislative proposals irrespective of who initiates these proposals and review of existing legislation, and that the SNCHR can choose to make such opinions and recommendations publicly available. Including the review of legislation or legislative proposals into the Draft Amendments would be in line with 3 (a) (i) of the Paris Principles. 28. The mandates to encourage ratification or accession to international human rights instruments and to create awareness of human rights norms through teaching, research and addressing public opinion are explicitly included in the Draft Amendments, which is welcome.36 29. §1 (7) of the Draft Amendments, requiring a response from the government, legislature and public bodies regarding an opinion, recommendation or proposal under §1 (2) (g) (proposals for legislative and non-legislative measures) is welcome, demonstrating commitment on the part of the government to engage with the recommendations of the Centre. It is also in keeping with the Paris Principles and SCA General Observation 1.6. However, to avoid unduly limiting this provision, the Draft Amendments should be broadened to include the exercise of all of the Centre’s relevant functions, not just those in §1 (2) (g) of the Draft Amendments. Further, §1 (7) of the Draft Amendments, should include all relevant aspects of the Centre’s mandate that include recommendations to state bodies, particularly §1 (2) (e), (f), (h) and (i). 30. Additionally, there is no explicit provision for the SNCHR granting investigative functions in relation to its human rights mandate. §1 (3) (a) of the Draft Amendments provides that the Centre may conduct ‘independent investigations concerning the area of 35 36 Op. cit. fn 7, p. 8 (2014 ICC Sub-Committee on Accreditation Report). The mandate to encourage ratification or accession to international human rights instruments is included in §1(2)(h), the mandate to create awareness of human rights norms through teaching, research and addressing public opinion is included, in particular, in particularly through §1(2)(b)(c)(e)(f) as well as §1(4) and (5). 10