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Using Human Rights Reports
last updated November 1, 2003

Human rights reports can be used for a variety of purposes, and depending on how the report fits into an overall advocacy strategy, advocates will want to determine to whom and how they will distribute the information. Below are descriptions of some of the ways that NGOs have used human rights reports as part of a strategy to improve the lives of women.

To Pressure National Governments to Implement Human Rights Protections
 

The primary object of creating a human rights report is to exert pressure on the local government to improve its response to human rights abuses. Sometimes government structures can be influenced directly when evidence of systemic human rights problems are brought to their attention. As is more often the case, government change requires pressure from both advocates, intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe, other States and citizens. Human rights reports are therefore a tool to educate these groups about the existence of specific human rights violations and possible ways to improve the situation.

To Report on (Non)Compliance with International Law

States are obligated to report on their compliance with the treaties they have ratified (i.e. the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination). U.N. treaty-monitoring bodies (committees) review and discuss these reports and then issue their own comments. NGOs can submit alternative or "shadow" reports to these committees, which include information that the government has overlooked or ignored. As a means of exerting pressure on the State, as discussed above, NGOs can use human rights reports as the basis for shadow reports and to demonstrate where the government is not in compliance with its obligations.

NGOs can also provide information from the reports to regional human rights organizations, such as the Council of Europe, on non-compliance with specific regional treaties.

Shadow reports are discussed in more detail in A Note About Shadow Reports.

To Lobby for Legislative and Policy Change

Human rights reports uncover barriers or breakdowns in the overall criminal justice system (for example, in cases of domestic violence, the victim must pay for a forensic examination, or the police delay sending files to the prosecutor).

In many countries the problem is not in the law itself, but in the implementation of the law, meaning that existing procedures and regulations create obstacles to women who try to access the system. Human rights reports can be used as guides to identify exactly which sections of the system need to be improved or corrected.

NGOs can use the information in human rights reports to support arguments for specific changes to the system, both at the policy level and, if necessary, changes to the laws themselves.

More information about developing lobbying strategies can be found in the section on Lobbying and Legal Reform.

Related Subjects
Why Undertake Human Rights Documentation?
Ethical Considerations in Conducting Research on Violence Against Women
The Process of Investigation and Evidence-Gathering
A Note About Shadow Reports
Summary of Resources
The Process of Analysis and Report-Writing