“国家人权机构”一词是指“由某一政府按照宪法、法律或行政命令建立的机构,其职责是从促进和保护人权的角度而予以特别规定”的机构。〔1〕联合国为推动此类机构的出现作出了决定性的贡献。1993年联合国大会通过《关于国家机构的地位的原则》(“巴黎原则”),为各成员国设立国家人权机构提供了国际标准。自此开始,在联合国的大力倡导下,世界五大洲涌现出了一批依据“巴黎原则”设立的国家人权机构。〔2〕其中,美洲国家建立的较早,集中于90年代初期,非洲和欧洲国家集中出现在90年代中期,亚太地区则发展于90年代后期。〔3〕 The term “national human rights institution” means “an institution established by a government in accordance with constitutional, legal or administrative orders and whose duty is to provide special provisions in the promotion and protection of human rights”. 1 The United Nations has made a decisive contribution to advancing the emergence of such institutions. The 1993 UN General Assembly adopted the “Principles on the Status of National Institutions” (“Paris Principles”), which provide international standards for the establishment of national human rights institutions in Member States. Since then, under the vigorous advocacy of the United Nations, a batch of national human rights institutions established under the “Paris Principles” have emerged in five continents. [2] Among them, the early establishment of the Americas was concentrated in the early 1990s. Africa and Europe concentrated in the mid-1990s while the Asia-Pacific region grew in the late 1990s. [3]