National Mechanisms for Reporting and Follow-up 2 LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of the session participants will be able to: ¡¡ identify the key features of a National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow-up; ¡¡ describe the four key capacities of an effective National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow-up; and ¡¡ exchange and discuss ideas for the improvement or establishment of its own Governmental structure for engagement with human rights mechanisms. SESSION PREPARATIONS ¡¡ The four key capacities of an effective NMRF provide a conceptual framework for promoting discussions between State officials as to how they can better institutionalize their engagement with all human rights mechanisms to improve the process of reporting or responding to individual communications, but also to ensure implementation of recommendations from human rights mechanisms to make subsequent reporting easier. Having this overall discussion on what already works or does not work at national level facilitates any subsequent training sessions on treaty reporting. For a State party to report well to a Treaty Body, it needs to have all four capacities well established. ¡¡ You are encouraged to familiarize yourself beforehand with the Practical Guide on NMRFs as you should be able to establish the links between the four capacities of a NMRF and the reporting cycle so that you can accurately present them to participants as needed during the training course. ¡¡ Presenting the key findings of the OHCHR Study on NMRFs also prepares the ground for specific discussions during the training course on 1) the establishment of a NMRF or 2) the strengthening of an existing governmental structure (see Session 2.2). ¡¡ Be mindful that the storytelling requires prior preparation. In advance of the training (at least two weeks before), identify two participants and invite them to share their experiences with their peers, as follows: üü for a national training course, a member of the Ministry leading the NMRF or the existing governmental structure for reporting, along with a member of another Ministry which participates in the NMRF; üü for a sub-regional or regional training course, a member of the NMRF from country A and a member of a NMRF from country B. ¡¡ Brief them on OHCHR’s Practical Guide and Study on NMRFs as well as on the session sequence and its learning objectives. ¡¡ Ask them to structure the presentation of their experience around the following questions: What has worked well? What are the challenges? What can be improved? This should take no more than 10 minutes. ¡¡ Make yourself available to coach them, as necessary, in preparation for their intervention. TIP ÎÎIt is useful to include this session at the outset of a training course to set the stage and conceptual framework for the subsequent discussions. 21