About Us

At the 'Commonwealth Conference of National Human Rights Institutions', held in London from 26-28 February 2007, members agreed to establish a Forum of Commonwealth NHRIs. Underpinning the Conference had been the fact that whilst individual Commonwealth NHRIs meet and share information on an ad hoc basis, no distinct forum presently exists for their interaction, as a collective, with Commonwealth Heads of Government.

The idea behind the Forum is to ensure that shared values, information and experiences are reflected and channelled into a single formal mechanism which will in turn increase interactions between institutions and governments and raise standards of human rights protection.

Over 40 commissioners and senior officials from the participating institutions attended the conference. Other organisations including the UN, Asia Pacific Forum for National Human Rights Institutions, ECOWAS and the British Council were also represented. The conference was funded by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) with assistance from the Rights and Democracy group of Canada.