This handbook examines areas of cooperation between United Nations human rights treaty bodies and national human rights institutions. A review of a broad range of options for complementary activities between monitoring institutions at the national and the international level shows an enormous potential for improved implementation of international human rights law. Most of the examples illustrating manifold areas of cooperation between treaty bodies and national human rights institutions are based on reports by national human rights institutions from all over the world.
Apart from publications and websites of national human rights institutions and from numerous documents by treaty bodies, the authors have drawn inspiration from discussions with the participants of the International Roundtable on the Role of National Human Rights Institutions and Treaty Bodies, held in Berlin in November 2006.
