All India Network of Individuals & NGOs working with National & SHRIs

The All India Network of NGOs and Individuals working with National and State Human Rights Institutions (AiNNI) is a platform initiated by CPSC through its program unit People’s Watch along with many individual activists, researchers and NGOs from across the country to monitor human rights institutions like the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women, the National Commission for Minorities, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, the Central Information Commission, the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and their state counterparts for their compliance to Paris Principles, their founding law and to activate them. The inspiration for the formation of AiNNI comes from Asian Network of NGOs working with NHRIs [ANNI].

AiNNI functions presently with a team of national convenors comprising Ms. Maja Daruwala [Executive Director – Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative], Dr. Y.S.R. Moorthy [Registrar, Jindal Law School and Former Director, NHRC] Mr. Mathew Philip [Executive Director – South India Centre for Human Rights Education and Monitoring], Dr. SDJM Prasad [Former Convenor of National Coalition for Amendments to the SC/ ST POA & National Dalit Movement For Justice], Mr. Yamben Laba [Former Member of the Manipur SHRC], Ms. Vrinda Grover [Advocate, New Delhi] and; Prof. Babu Mathew [Professor, National Law School of India University] and Mr. Miloon Kothari [Former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing] as Advisers. AiNNI has so far functioned with Mr. Henri Tiphagne as its Honorary National Working Secretary and functioned from the office premises of People’s Watch [CPSC] in Madurai.

AiNNI has to its credit the first civil society report on the Indian NHRC submitted to the International Co-ordination Committee of the NHRIs (ICC) in Geneva for Indian NHRC’s re-accreditation in May 2011. AiNNI has also been submitting chapters to the ANNI annual reports since 2011. AiNNI now proposes to establish itself more formally as a platform with specialised committees or task force catering to the different thematic concerns like women, children, minorities, Dalits, tribals, right to information etc so that it could reach out to the specialised state level institutions on thematic concerns. It also started collaborating with other platforms and reaching out to SHRIs across the country in capacity building programs. The most recent was the national colloquium jointly conducted by the National Law University, New Delhi], the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN and AiNNI in November 2014 in which several SHRIs from across the country catering to women, children, right to information, human rights and disabilities participated. This paved the way for AiNNI to engage in this proposed action as an affiliated entity.

The two-way strategy of AiNNI is to (i) engage in civil society monitoring of the N/SHRIs across the country and engage in this process individuals, researchers, institutions and NGOs who are engaged on a day to day basis with these institutions in complaints handling, advocacy and lobbying and; (ii) engage in a parallel effort at providing as many opportunities of trainings as possible to the chairpersons, members and staff of these N/SHRIs who are largely deprived of any such opportunities except the NHRC. The NHRC being the sole member from India to the ICC and APF benefits from its trainings and workshops.

Through its engagement, AiNNI will equip civil society organizations within the country in (i) research skills to undertake the monitoring of N/SHRIs; (ii) advocacy efforts at the state level as well as at the national level to ensure that the process of selection and appointment of chairpersons and members to the N/SHRIs in India are made truly transparent and allowing sufficient space for diversity and pluralism; (iii) lobby among political parties – national and state level – to undertake greater scrutiny of the annual reports of the N/SHRIs being submitted to the state legislatures and both houses of the Parliament, ensure close audit of their functions and protect their independence, effectiveness transparency and accountability.

AiNNI is also affiliated as a member of ANNI which has its secretariat at FORUM-ASIA in Bangkok. ANNI is a network of Asian human rights NGOs and human rights defenders engaging with NHRIs in Asia. This network was established in December 2006 at the 1st Regional Consultation on Cooperation between NHRIs and NGOs in Asia, held in Bangkok, Thailand, organized by FORUM-ASIA. The goal of the ANNI is to help establish and develop accountable, independent, effective, and transparent national human rights institutions in Asia. The network pursues its advocacy at the national, regional, and international levels, on issues regarding NHRIs. AiNNI will also gradually pave the way through its association with ANNI in ensuring that similar networks/platforms are initiated in all Asian countries to increase civil society oversight into the regular day to day functioning of these institutions which play an important role in Asia in the absence of an Asian Human Rights mechanism.