ABSTRACT
If the human rights of individuals and groups are to be protected and advanced then there needs to be an effective facilitating framework and mechanism which can do this. Merely giving expression to fundamental rights in written laws is not enough. These can be ignored or circumvented or at best given weak acknowledgment. Nor can the advocacy, monitoring and reporting of human rights in the region be left solely to one institution or system. This is not simply because of the resources which would be required to carry out the task, but also because the experience of human rights operates at many different levels and, in a region where people are scattered geographically, may be denied access to information or various institutions, such as the formal courts, the office of the Ombudsman or central offices of government, a more diversified approach is needed.
