A/HRC/41/40 65. National human rights institutions pursue legal remedies for IDPs through all available channels, including by submitting amicus briefs, engaging in strategic litigation and addressing constitutional or other courts or complaints-handling bodies at the national and/or international level. They have also advocated for the application of certain legislation favourable to the rights of IDPs. In the Philippines, its institution issued legal advisories interpreting existing legislation to protect the rights of IDPs and conducted round tables with municipal governments to enable them to understand and implement such laws and measures. 66. The legal assistance needs of IDPs can be diverse and complex and evolve through the course of displacement. They may require specialist interventions to protect their human rights. For example, displacement often causes the loss of essential documents or documents become invalid in displacement locations, which can exclude IDPs from access to services, social assistance and the right to vote. Land, housing and property rights are also frequently areas of considerable concern for IDPs. National human rights institutions emphasized the need to assist IDPs in relation to such specialist needs and those NHRIs working with IDPs have built capacity, expertise and processes to respond. 6. Awareness-raising, education and human rights training 67. National human rights institutions disseminate information about human rights and provide education and training to diverse stakeholders, including on the Guiding Principles. Informing IDPs of their rights is vital to empowering them to claim their rights and ensure that Government is held to account. For example, in Georgia, the limited awareness among IDPs of their rights was identified by the Public Defender’s Office as a challenge to achieving durable solutions. Outreach and operational activities of NHRIs, including human rights monitoring, may usefully include human rights awareness-raising components, appropriate and tailored to IDPs. National institutions emphasized the need to reach community leaders but also others, including the most vulnerable groups among the displaced population. 68. Even where NHRIs have limited capacity or IDPs are difficult to reach, they can still provide information and advisory services, for example by establishing dedicated helplines, information points, gender desks and drop-in centres to enable IDPs to obtain information, ideally in local languages, and be guided towards service providers. NGOs often provide essential services to IDPs as front-line responders; however, they may lack expertise on human rights. National institutions have worked in close partnership with them to ensure accuracy of information and advice. Engagement with NHRIs enhances the human rights knowledge of NGOs and enables them to improve their human rights information-gathering and to share data with NHRIs that they may be lacking. 69. National human rights institutions undertake specific awareness-raising and training activities with military, police and civilian authorities that are in contact with IDPs, including those with responsibilities for security, service provision and camp management. This has been the case, for example, in Afghanistan, Niger, Nigeria, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Training of staff within appropriate courts and public offices, including complaintshandling bodies, may be required to provide expertise on the content of international, regional and national laws and standards relevant to internal displacement and their interpretation and implementation at the national level. 70. The media are critical in shaping public opinion and setting social, political and economic agendas. Accurate, informed and sustained media coverage of human rights helps shape community attitudes and contributes to genuine changes in law, policy and practice. 22 National human rights institutions suggested undertaking media engagement strategies on internal displacement and monitoring and engaging the media systematically, including by providing information packages, to address stigmatization in media coverage of IDPs and to sensitize the media to internal displacement issues. Equally, social media may be increasingly employed by NHRIs to reach wider audiences, including in hard-to-reach locations, and to gather and disseminate information. 22 Asia Pacific Forum, Media Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions (2014). 15