NGOs and human rights monitoring : the 'how, when, where, what and why' of effective engagement

Since the late 1990s, Australian NGOs1 have engaged in United Nations (‘UN’) human rights processes.2 Before then, Aboriginal legal services and other Aboriginal organisations had engaged with the human rights bodies3 but the broader community sector in Australia had not.4 Now, more than 15 years after first engaging, it is timely to ask what benefit NGOs, or their constituents, gain from their engagement in human rights processes? And what are some of the considerations for NGOs to engage effectively with human rights mechanisms? The reasons why each NGO engages in human rights processes will determine how they engage; there are choices about this, each step of the way.