2021 NHRI Academy: Protecting human rights defenders and shaping inclusive civil society

The 2021 edition of the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) Academy aims to train senior and mid-level staff from NHRIs across the OSCE region on:

• how to address the particular challenges they face in their work
• how to fulfill their mandate to promote and protect human rights more effectively

Topics

The programme of this year’s Academy focuses on NHRI’s mandate to protect and promote human rights defenders, and build resilience to threats or other challenges.

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

• protecting human rights defenders and inclusive civil society space
• reacting to challenges
• building institutional and personal resilience
• ensuring psychosocial well-being.

Other topics are related to the independence of NHRIs, including mainstreaming the Paris Principles, and prioritizing gender in the work of NHRIs.  

Why it is important

The NHRI Academy is a flagship annual event of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI).

The Academy is a capacity building event with long-term aims to:

• provide a long-standing resource for the continuing professional development of staff at NHRIs
• support professional networking between NHRIs in the OSCE region, and between NHRIs, ODIHR, ENNHRI and other stakeholders and organizations

Location

In 2021, ODIHR and ENNHRI are for the second time organizing the Academy online, on Zoom.