A/HRC/13/29 49. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first human rights convention that includes an explicit role for national human rights institutions in promoting, protecting and monitoring implementation of a treaty at national level. Treaty bodies monitoring other human rights treaties have however often interpreted the general obligation to adopt all measures necessary to give effect to the treaty to include the establishment of a national human rights institution.28 The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in particular, issued a general comment on the role of national human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child in which it clarified that it “considers the establishment of such bodies to fall within the commitment made by States parties upon ratification to ensure the implementation of the Convention”29 and that “the role of national human rights institutions is to monitor independently the State’s compliance and progress towards implementation [of the Convention] and to do all it can to ensure full respect for children’s rights”.30 50. On the basis of the submissions received, there seems to be a fair awareness amongst States parties of the role their national human rights institutions can play with regard to the protection, promotion and monitoring of the implementation of the Convention. Several national human rights institutions in fact have long-established records of engagement on the theme which derive from their broad human rights mandate and often precede the ratification of the Convention in their respective countries. To illustrate this, several national human rights commissions such as those in Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and Togo have focal points or departments on the rights of persons with disabilities. Several ombudsmen have similar experiences for instance in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru.31 51. Notwithstanding this wide engagement of national human rights institutions in the rights of persons with disabilities, only a few States have taken formal steps to designate their national human rights institutions as the independent mechanism of the framework. Positive examples include Germany32 which has formally designated the German Institute for Human Rights as the independent mechanism and the United Kingdom33 which has designated the Equality and Human Rights Commissions, the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights and Equality Commissions in the devolved administrations, in accordance with article 33, paragraph 2. Other States, such as Latvia, have reported that they are taking formal steps in this same direction.34 52. On the other hand, some submissions seem to implicitly assume the attribution of the promotion, protection and monitoring functions of the Convention to the national human rights institution without a formal designation. Naturally, national institutions do not have to wait for the Convention to be ratified to become engaged in the rights of persons with disabilities. However, formal designation can represent an important opportunity for strengthening the entity concerned and contribute to the effective implementation of its functions. 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 12 See for example Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, general recommendation No. 17 (1993) on the establishment of national institutions to facilitate the implementation of the Convention and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 10 (1998) on the role of national human rights institutions in the protection of economic, social and cultural rights. General comment No. 2 (2002), para. 1. Ibid., para. 25. See submissions at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/disability/submissions.htm. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. GE.09-17748