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UN approach to field work

sued by international human rights mechanisms in Background relation to Member States, including the Universal Pe- riodic Review (UPR). The ultimate aim of these efforts is to strengthen the national human rights infrastruc- The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ture through the establishment of coordination mech- (OHCHR) implements its work at national and regional anisms that are led by the with the active levels, which includes the provision of advisory participation of State institutions, national human rights services and technical cooperation, in accordance institutions (NHRIs) and organizations for with the High Commissioner’s mandate under General integrated reporting and follow-up. Ensuring that this Assembly resolution 48/141. work is systematically and increasingly carried out in line with national development plans enhances the At the country level, OHCHR works with its national abilities of Member States to address gaps in imple- counterparts to strengthen protection systems and mentation and revise and practices to be implement effective measures to break down obsta- in conformity with human rights norms, while also con- cles to the realization of human rights. To do so, the tributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda Office acts to establish or reinforce the of for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable De- accountability and mechanisms at the national velopment Goals. level to undertake monitoring and investigation and secure redress for victims of human rights violations. In 2017, OHCHR responded to deteriorating human OHCHR prioritizes follow-up to recommendations is- rights situations and early signs of emerging crises

OHCHR staff members on the road to a monitoring mission in Antioquia province, Colombia. © OHCHR/Colombia

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through the rapid deployment of monitoring missions the UPR. They also focus on cross-cutting regional hu- or additional surge capacity for UN operations in the man rights issues, in close cooperation with regional context of humanitarian emergencies. As of the end of and subregional intergovernmental organizations and the year, OHCHR was operating in 59 field presences civil society. Regional offices further support and co- and providing support to other members of the UN operate with OHCHR country offices by providing as- system through rapid deployments of human rights of- sistance on institutional and thematic issues. OHCHR ficers in response to emerging situations. also maintains regional centres with specific mandates that are established through General Assembly reso- lutions. Regional offices and centres are funded by the UN regular budget and voluntary contributions.

Types of field presences OHCHR maintains 12 regional presences, which are composed of 10 regional offices in East (Ad- dis Ababa), Southern Africa (Pretoria), West Africa OHCHR operates through two main types of field (Dakar), South-East Asia (Bangkok), the Pacific (Suva), presences: stand-alone offices and collaborative the Middle East and North Africa (Beirut), Central Asia arrangements. The first category is composed of (Bishkek), Europe (Brussels), Central America (Panama country and regional offices, which are under the City) and South America (Santiago de Chile), a sub- direct supervision of OHCHR. The second category regional centre for human rights and for consists of field presences with double reporting lines, Central Africa (Yaoundé) and a Training and Documen- namely, human rights components of or political tation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region missions, which report to the Head of the mission and (Doha). the High Commissioner and human rights advisers (HRAs), who report to resident coordinators and the High Commissioner. Human rights components of United operations and special political missions Country and stand-alone offices During 2017, 13 UN peace missions maintained a OHCHR country and stand-alone offices are estab- human rights component and incorporated human lished on the basis of a standard agreement between rights protection and promotion into their mandated OHCHR and a host government. A mandate typically work in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the includes human rights monitoring, protection, techni- Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, cal cooperation activities and public reporting and is , Iraq, Kosovo2, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Somalia, tailored to a specific country situation. These offices South and Sudan (Darfur). The peace mission are primarily funded through voluntary contributions. in Côte d’Ivoire was closed in mid-2017, and the peace mission in Haiti closed as another opened, in OHCHR has 14 country or stand-alone offices which October, with a new mandate. The Heads of human consist of 13 country offices in Bolivia, , rights components of peace missions report to the , Colombia, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Special Representative of the Secretary-General Mauritania, Mexico, the State of Palestine1, Tunisia, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Uganda and , as well as one field-based They represent OHCHR in connection with both the structure in Seoul covering the Democratic People’s peace and security and human rights aspects of their Republic of Korea. OHCHR also operates the Human missions. In addition to monitoring and reporting on Rights Mission in Ukraine. the human rights situation on the ground, the human rights components conduct a wide range of activities including technical assistance, capacity building, Regional offices and centres investigation into serious human rights violations and also support follow-up action to the recommendations Regional offices have an important role to play in sup- issued by the international human rights mechanisms porting governments in their engagement with the in- in relation to the host country. ternational human rights mechanisms, specifically the human rights bodies, the special procedures and

1 Reference to the State of Palestine should be understood in 2 Reference to Kosovo should be understood in full compliance compliance with General Assembly resolution with United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 and without 67/19. to the of Kosovo.

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In 2017, OHCHR proactively engaged with Security OHCHR continued to integrate human rights into the Council members to integrate human rights into the peace day-to-day operations of DPKO and DFS, including and security agenda and with the General Assembly’s through direct involvement in the Integrated Fifth Committee to ensure the adequate allocation of Operational Team’s discussions on mission concepts resources for human rights work in peace operations. and the development of strategic priorities. The Office OHCHR focused on the implementation of the Secretary- provided technical guidance on the implementation General’s decision to consolidate specialized protection of the HRDDP to peacekeeping missions and special functions under the human rights components of peace political missions in CAR, DRC, Haiti, Mali and Somalia, missions, including through the practical implementation to the and the United Nations of the guidance note on consolidation in the peace Division in the context of their support to national and political missions in the Central African Republic, police. OHCHR helped to facilitate the downsizing Mali and Somalia and by supporting the enhanced and placement of human rights staff in the missions in impact and coherence of protection approaches in Côte d’Ivoire and Haiti and supported DPKO in starting missions. Under the Protection of mandate, up the human rights component in the new UN Mission OHCHR ensured that gathered by human for Justice Support in Haiti, including by providing rights components was used to inform early warning advice on required staffing numbers and structures assessments, analyses of common threats and joint and screening candidates for deployment. Moreover, protection responses to identified hot spots, particularly OHCHR supported peacekeeping and special political for vulnerable . Based on OHCHR casualty missions in the selection and deployment of Heads of recording and monitoring , human rights human rights components in DRC, Haiti, Iraq and Sudan components in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia issued (Darfur) and screened over 140 UN Volunteer profiles reports on the Protection of Civilians. for human rights deployment to peace operations.

OHCHR actively engaged with the United Nations Human rights advisers in United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and Country Teams the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) to develop and shape policy documents on key areas, such as Human rights advisers are deployed at the request of the protection of civilians and related accountability, resident coordinators on behalf of the United Nations the approaches of missions to conflict-related sexual Country Teams (UNCTs). Advisers support and assist and the by UN personnel. OHCHR the resident coordinators, Heads of UN agencies and also supported peace operations in implementing the members of UNCTs to integrate human rights into their Human Rights Policy on UN Support to programming strategies and build and strengthen na- non-UN Security Forces (HRDDP). OHCHR continued tional human rights capacities. A particular focus of to work closely with DPA and DPKO in delivering the advisers is to provide human rights expertise in human rights training to senior mission leaders and the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable De- uniformed personnel, including by being part of the velopment and its Sustainable Development Goals. core group developing the Additional functions include advising on the establish- Commanders Course. ment and delivery of training to independent national human rights institutions and other stakeholders; ad- Engagement with the African Union (AU) to develop a vising State actors on the promotion and protection robust human rights framework, notably in the context of human rights and other UN norms and standards; of plans to finance AU peace operations, was a key building networks with and providing practical support focus area for OHCHR in 2017. The Office provided to civil society actors; providing operational support to substantive support to the AU Peace and Security human rights training and/or national capacity-building Department to develop a compliance framework for activities; promoting engagement with the internation- regional peace support operations and prepared a al human rights mechanisms; promoting and support- common workplan towards its implementation. The ing the integration of and women’s Office partnered with the Department of Field Support rights into programming and, when applicable, advis- (DFS) and DPKO in the implementation of human ing on integrating human rights into humanitarian re- rights due diligence mechanisms related to the UN’s sponse and post-crisis recovery processes. support to the operations of the AU Mission in Somalia. Furthermore, OHCHR played a leadership role in Human rights advisers are funded through extrabudg- ensuring the creation of a compliance framework in etary contributions. In some instances, cost-sharing the establishment and operations of the Joint Force agreements have been concluded with UNDP or rel- for the G5 Sahel States, as called for by the Secretary- evant UNCTs as well as other UN entities at the coun- General and Security Council in December 2017. try level. Since 2012, new deployments have been

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aligned with the UNDG Strategy for the Deployment as the Task Team on the Humanitarian-Development of new HRAs. This Strategy faced numerous chal- Nexus and the Task Team on the inclusion of persons lenges at the beginning of 2017 in terms of financial with in humanitarian action. OHCHR contin- , which resulted in the termination of a ued to implement the commitments it made at the 2016 number of deployments. Nevertheless, due to ongo- World Humanitarian Summit. ing cooperation with the UN Development Coordina- tion Office and UNDG and with the financial support At the country level, OHCHR integrated human rights of a number of Member States, OHCHR managed to into the overall efforts of Protection Clusters, humani- ensure continuity for existing deployments through tarian country teams and humanitarian coordinators. 2018 and responded to the requests from the teams The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights par- on the ground. This development also resulted in the ticipated in the annual humanitarian coordinators re- expansion of modalities of support to UNCTs on the treat and OHCHR maintained the deployment of three ground. staff members to advise the regional- and country-level humanitarian leadership of the crisis in the Syrian Arab During 2017, OHCHR deployed 24 human rights Republic. OHCHR led the Protection Cluster in the advisers/human rights mainstreaming projects in State of Palestine and participated in the work of Pro- various countries, including Bangladesh3, Barbados3, tection Clusters or working groups, in Guatemala, Haiti, Chad, the Dominican Republic4, Jamaica4, Kenya, Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania, Mexico, , Panama, Madagascar, Malawi4, Mozambique4, Niger3, Nigeria4, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, Timor-Leste, Ukraine and Papua New Guinea, Paraguay (until February 2017), Yemen, as well as in the Pacific region. In the wake of the Philippines4, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Hurricanes Irma and Maria, OHCHR supported the Car- Federation, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone4, the South ibbean Disaster Management Agency in Caucasus (based in Tbilisi and covering Armenia, its recovery planning discussions with affected coun- Azerbaijan and Georgia), Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste4, the tries. In addition, through its deployments to Bangla- former Yugoslav Republic of and to the desh, the Office endeavoured to assess the protection UNDG regional team in Bangkok4. needs and risks of the Rohingya community displaced in Cox’s Bazaar. Also, in the context of humanitarian operations in north-east Nigeria, OHCHR deployed six human rights officers who contributed to establishing mechanisms for systematic monitoring and response Engagement in to protection concerns. During the reporting period, humanitarian action the Central Emergency Response Fund supported the Office’s engagement in Myanmar.

The Office maintained strong engagement in humani- In 2017, OHCHR created the first emergency response tarian action at the global and field levels, with a view to teams for the Regional Offices in Pretoria and Bang- ensuring that the protection of human rights remained kok. Recruitment has been finalized. The teams are a central tenet of humanitarian action in line with the composed of a human rights emergency response of- UN’s Human Rights up Front Action Plan and the Inter- ficer and a national professional officer specialized in Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC) Centrality of Pro- information management to enhance the production tection Agenda. Throughout the year, OHCHR partici- of human rights analysis and early warning information pated in global humanitarian leadership fora, including at the regional level; and to establish the basis for tar- the IASC Principals, Working Group and Emergency Di- geted preventive action and swift response in relation rectors Group, as well as IASC subsidiary bodies, such to potential, emerging or actual crises.

3 National human rights advisers/officers in UNCTs. 4 Human rights adviser deployed through the UNDG Strategy for the Deployment of Human Rights Advisers operationalized by OHCHR.

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