Establish a standing national mechanism (NMIRF)

National mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up (NMIRFs) are national government structures mandated to coordinate the preparation of reports to, and engage with, international and regional human rights mechanisms and to facilitate national follow-up and implementation of human rights treaty law obligations and the recommendations emanating from those mechanisms.

This page provides guidance on key ingredients of national mechanisms' institutional set-ups and mandates as initial considerations for establishing NMIRFs.

A related page entitled "Strengthen a NMIRF" looks at how a national mechanisms' functioning and efficiency can be scaled up when the mechanism's capacity to engage with international and regional mechanisms is adequately addressed and when coordination processes among state entities are institutionally built.

This related page also shows that strengthened NMIRFs entail, in any given context, the capacity to meaningfully consult with a variety of independent stakeholders including the national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and civil society organizations, human rights defenders, marginalized groups.

Lastly, you can go to "Strengthen a NMIRF" page to read more on how experience has shown that given the wealth of information such national mechanisms deal with, they can only be efficient when they are supported by fit for purpose information management tools including digital tracking tools and databases.