Chad

Chad has a standing national mechanism for implementation, reporting and follow-up (NMIRF) entitled the Interministerial Committee, which is responsible for monitoring international human rights instruments and drafting reports due to the Treaty Bodies.

INSTITUTIONAL SETUP

Composition

Members of the national mechanism include:

• Leadership- President – Secretary-General of Ministry of Justice and Human Rights;
• First Vice-President – Secretary-General of Foreign Affairs;
• Second Vice-President – Secretary-General of Women’s Affairs.
• Representatives from Presidency legal/human rights advisors,
• Parliament Human Rights Commission,
• Economic/Social/Cultural Council,
• High Authority for Media and Audiovisual,
• Various ministries (Justice, Defense, Health, Public Security, Planning, Public Service, Youth, Education, Communication, Territorial Administration)
• Trade unions
• Human rights associations.

Rapporteurs of the national mechanism include:

• The Director of Human Rights;
• The Director of Legal Affairs, Litigation, and Human Rights of the Ministry in charge of Foreign Affairs;
• The Director of Studies and Documentation of the General Secretariat of the Government;
• The Secretary-General of the National Human Rights Commission.

Secretariat

The national mechanism is supported by a permanent Secretariat with:

• Two staff members from the Directorate of Human Rights appointed by Order of the Minister of Justice and Human Rights;
• One staff member from the Ministry in charge of Women’s Affairs appointed by Order of their supervising Ministry;
• One staff member from the Ministry in charge of Foreign Affairs appointed by Order of their supervising Ministry.

Methods of work

There are no formal standing operating procedures or internal guidelines to coordinate NMIRF work.

MANDATE

The Interministerial Committee’s mandate includes:

• Monitoring the implementation of international human rights instruments to which Chad is a party.

• Drafting national reports for submission to UN bodies, the African Union, and other international human rights organizations within agreed deadlines.

• Disseminating reports and recommendations from their review.

• Advising the government on draft legislation to align national laws with international human rights obligations.

• Recommending ratification of international human rights conventions not yet adopted by Chad.

• Promoting human rights recommendations, conventions, and related laws.

The national mechanism engages with all UN human rights mechanisms and with the regional human rights system.

Process for the preparation of state reports

• Reports (initial, periodic, UPR, responses to lists of issues, etc.) are drafted by a restricted committee of 8–12 national experts from the larger NMIRF.

• Drafts are submitted to the full Interministerial Committee for validation.

• Information is collected via Focal Points in relevant ministries, instructed by the Minister of Justice, and compiled by the Permanent Secretariat.

• Data undergoes an internal verification/validation process before report submission.

COORDINATION

Meetings are determined by the Minister of Justice; no fixed schedule is currently defined.

Channel of communication with the National Statistics Office The NMIRF interacts through the Focal Point of the Ministry in charge of Planning, in collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics, Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED).

Channel of communication with the Parliament In addition, the NMIRF communicates through the Human Rights Commission of the National Assembly, which is a committee member.

Channel of communication with the Judiciary The Permanent Secretariat can access any jurisdiction, with authorization from the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Justice, to collect necessary data for reports.

CONSULTATION

The NMIRF collaborates with civil society organizations, which are also committee members, facilitating information gathering. Since 2022, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, with the support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has held a biennial national human rights forum as a broad consultation platform.

Data for reporting and monitoring implementation of recommendations is collected via written, electronic, and physical correspondence through ministry Focal Points. No formal SOPs exist for managing these tools.

Chad plans to develop an action plan for UPR 2018–2022 recommendations. A national human rights policy is planned following the national forum in the first half of 2024.