Follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights – Activities by Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights/HRC 13th session – Report (excerpts)

Follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights: report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

I. Introduction

1. The present report, which should be read together with the High Commissioner’s report to the General Assembly (A/64/36), constitutes the High Commissioner’s annual report submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 2/102. The report notes a number of serious human rights challenges that have predominated during 2009, particularly the food, economic and financial crises, and a subsequent deterioration of the ability of vulnerable groups to enjoy their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has addressed these challenges by reinforcing the work and emphasizing the relevance of the international human rights mechanisms and has engaged in dialogue and cooperation with Member States and other stakeholders.

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II. Support for the work of the Human Rights Council and the effective functioning of its mechanisms

2. With the support of OHCHR, the Human Rights Council held four special sessions on the human rights situations in several countries, and two thematic sessions: one on the global food crisis and another on the economic crisis. OHCHR continued to support country missions including the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict and a mission to Honduras (see section IV below).

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B. Special procedures

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13. The special procedures complement and add value to other international human rights mechanisms, including to other Council and human rights treaty bodies. They have an important role in early-warning processes and drawing the international community’s attention to emerging issues and global crises, as recently emphasized during a side event convened by OHCHR during the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly. The Council has mandated groups of thematic and country rapporteurs with additional tasks, such as reports on specific human rights situations in the context of special sessions, for example on the Sudan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As a result of an open invitation extended by the President through their Coordination Committee, special procedures’ voices are heard at all Council special sessions.

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III. Developments in strategic thematic areas

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D. Combating impunity and the prevention of genocide

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22. The rule of law forms the foundation of legal protection of human rights and combating impunity, and during 2009, OHCHR continued to play a lead role within the United Nations system to combat impunity, strengthen accountability and to establish and entrench conditions for democracy and the rule of law. Support was provided to the independent international fact-finding missions concerning Gaza and Guinea, and OHCHR continued to engage with Governments and other national actors to promote principles of accountability and rule of law, to provide examples of best practice and technical advice and assistance. Briefings to the Security Council were provided, at its request, during the Security Council’s debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, its consultations on the application of humanitarian law in conflict situations, during its retreat on protection issues, and the meetings of its Counter-Terrorism Committee.

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44.  OHCHR also provided operational and technical support, including through the appointment of a secretariat, to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict established by the President of the Human Rights Council on 3 April 2009 “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after”.⁵ The final report of the mission was submitted to the Human Rights Council on 29 September 2009.

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IV. The work and cooperation of the Office of the High Commissioner at the country and regional levels

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48.   OHCHR continued to participate in inter-agency humanitarian mechanisms, particularly the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and its subsidiary groups, and the Global Protection Cluster Working Group. OHCHR prioritized its operational role in humanitarian contexts, namely in empowering human rights field presences to fully participate — and sometimes to lead — in collaborative efforts. OHCHR currently plays a lead role in protection coordination in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Fiji (regional), Haiti, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territories, Samoa and Timor-Leste. OHCHR was also pleased to assist the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the development of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, launched in October 2009, the first regional body of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.

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⁵ Resolution S-9/1 of the Human Rights Council adopted on 12 January 2009 at the conclusion of its ninth special session.