Human Rights and Equality Institutions in Europe

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are state bodies mandated to protect and promote human rights. Their mission is to identify and tackle systemic problems while raising fundamental rights awareness in countries in which they have been established. Human rights institutions at the national level include Ombudsman (some specialising in particularly vulnerable groups), Equality Bodies, National Preventive Mechanisms, National Monitoring Mechanisms, Data Protection Agencies, and more. In this article, we analyse the strengths and weaknesses of both centralised and fragmented systems of human rights institutions. Using examples from several European countries, we particularly examine how the fragmentation of institutions affects their resilience to pressures which can adversely impact the promotion and protection of human rights and equality at the national level. We argue that opting for a certain NHRIs’ system might exert significant influence on the independence and effectiveness of individual institutions, as well as on the overall comprehensiveness of a nation’s human rights infrastructure.