2026 NHRI Academy: Empowering human rights narratives in a shifting information landscape

About 

The National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) Academy is a flagship annual event organized by ODIHR and the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI). It brings together senior- and mid-level staff from NHRIs across the OSCE region for tailored, practical week-long training on addressing particular challenges that NHRIs face in their work.

The long-term goals of this capacity-building event are to provide a long-standing resource for the continuing professional development of NHRI staff and support professional networking between NHRIs in the OSCE region, and between NHRIs, ODIHR, ENNHRI and other stakeholders and organizations.

The 2026 NHRI Academy will explore NHRIs’ roles in promoting and protecting human rights in an environment increasingly marked by polarisation and anti-human rights narratives, and where human rights and the rule of law are often challenged, disregarded, or instrumentalised. 

Thus, it will focus on strengthening NHRIs’ capacity to address challenges related to human rights narratives in a shifting landscape, enabling NHRIs, through their mandates, to address issues that directly impact the promotion and protection of human rights.

The training will provide the selected 27 NHRI staff members with a unique opportunity to learn and share experiences through a series of lectures, interactive sessions, and active exchanges.

This one-week course will provide participants with a toolkit for:

• Reviewing the relevant legislative and policy frameworks related to human rights narratives and the information landscape
• Mainstreaming various topics throughout, such as responding to attacks on NHRIs and their staff, strategies to reframe and counter anti-human rights narratives, effective human rights advocacy, the relationship between disinformation, discrimination, and hate crimes, human rights backsliding, the misuse of human rights language for anti-human rights purposes, and polarised discourse
• Building the capacity of NHRIs across the OSCE in effectively using their human rights mandates to address challenges of the shifting information and political landscape
• Facilitating discussions and peer-exchange of good practices as well as lessons learnt regarding empowering human rights narratives in a shifting environment

Other topics to be addressed are related to the independence of NHRIs, including mainstreaming the Principles Relating to the Status of National Human Rights Institutions (Paris Principles), and gender in the work of NHRIs.

Participants

The course is designed for senior and mid-level staff from NHRIs across the OSCE region. Participants will be trained to address the particular challenges they face in their work, especially in empowering human rights narratives in a shifting environment, and to fulfil their institution’s mandates to promote and protect human rights more effectively.

The training is only open to already selected participants.

Contact

For more information about ODIHR’s work regarding NHRIs, please contact ODIHR Human Rights Adviser, Priska Anna Babuin at Priskaanna.Babuin@odihr.pl.