Developments and Challenges of Designing National Human Rights Action Plans: 1994–2024

Abstract Even though National Human Rights Action Plans (NHRAPs), as recommended in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, have developed dramatically over the last three decades in more than 80 counties, there are as yet no universal standards and criteria for guidance and evaluation of NHRAPs in practice. This study aims to serve two purposes. First, adopting the general theory of human rights action planning, it explores the four key dimensions of NHRAPing, National-ness, Human rights-ness, Action-ness, and Plan-ness, putting forward 13 criteria which can be employed not only for measuring the degree of success in designing NHRAPs, but also as guidance for preparing, developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating these plans. Second, using these general criteria, this research conducts an extensive longitudinal study of 82 NHRAPs, developed between 1994 and 2024 and available in English, to uncover the general patterns, differences, developments, and challenges of designing these plans in practice.