Guidebook Poland In Poland, the NHRI acted upon the concerns raised by the President of the Polish Bar Council with regard to the right to information of arrested persons by filing a motion to the Police Commander in Chief Representative on Human Rights. 263 2.5. The role of NHRIs vis-à-vis other national human rights departments and bodies International and European standards do not impose a uniform model of national mechanism, but leave it open to the national authorities to decide what model and structure is the best suited in each particular national context.264 International bodies have issued a number of recommendations for the case of specialised mandates placed within the umbrella of already existing NHRIs. For example, with regard to NPMs the SPT has recommended that there should be “two different and separate structures serving two different mandates and preserving a level of autonomy” to ensure full independence, financial and functional autonomy not only from the State but also from the NHRI.265 The CRPD Committee, taking a different approach, has encouraged States parties to appoint the Paris Principlescompliant NHRIs as the monitoring framework, provided that they are equipped “with additional and adequate budgetary and skilled human resources to appropriately discharge its mandate under article 33 (2) of the Convention.”266 As a consequence, there are several domestic human rights bodies with different mandates in the EU Member States. On the other hand, all international bodies including the SCA, SPT, and the CRPD recognise that coordination and cooperation between the NHRIs and other domestic human rights bodies or departments within the same institution is important. Coordination serves to avoid that human rights situations falling under all the different mandates are addressed simultaneously by various national 58 THE MANDATE AND ROLE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS mechanisms creating unnecessary overlaps, contradicting messages, or remain overlooked because none of them feels responsible to address the issue. To improve coordination and increase transparency, the adoption of a memorandum of understanding between the NHRIs and other specialised bodies to cover referrals could be particularly useful. In the case of different departments between the same organisations guidelines or internal regulations could be adopted. As pointed out by the SCA: “The importance of formalizing clear and workable relationships with other human rights bodies and civil society, such as through public memoranda of understanding, serves as a reflection of the importance of ensuring regular, constructive working relationships and is key to increasing the transparency of the NHRI’s work with these bodies.”267 In practice, however, even though many NHRIs, NPMs and CRPD mechanisms reported fruitful cooperation, no instances of formalised relationships with other domestic human rights bodies or departments could be identified. Moreover, cooperation between NHRIs and other bodies or departments can also be a powerful tool to reinforce each other’s role and impact. This is also recognised by the SPT, which affirmed that: “While the national preventive mechanism is charged with the core national preventive functions, this does not preclude other departments or staff of the national human rights institution from contributing to its work, as that cooperation might lead to synergies and complementarities.”268 NHRIs have a multifunctional mandate that allows them to cover different aspects of the protection and promotion of human rights, 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.269 The breadth and flexibility of their mandate mean that NHRIs could use it to reinforce and complement the work of others. To this extent, it is important that NHRIs and other domestic human rights bodies or departments exchange information, as this will enable further cooperation. In practice, there are various ways how NHRIs can effectively cooperate with other domestic human rights bodies and departments. 59