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10 January 2000
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Spanish Diplomatic School, Human Rights Activities in the Field,
Madrid - January 2000
Speech by Mary Robinson
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure and honour for me to be here today to talk about the activities that my Office is undertaking with a view to promoting and protecting human rights and to listen to ideas you may have which might help us better achieve our goal.
I propose to focuss on the subject of human rights field presences. The concept is relatively recent but already field presences form an important part of the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and of other human rights organisations.
From an Office where most of the activities were concentrated in Geneva, we have in recent years expanded considerably by establishing presences in each of the continents. By doing this, we have managed to get closer to our direct beneficiaries and consequently to have a greater impact. The establishment of field offices has also allowed us to improve our assessment of the human rights situation in a given country and hence to understand the particular needs and difficulties. This direct and continuous assessment facilitates the identification of ways whereby we can provide the support for national capacity building required in a country.
The first human rights field presence was established in Zagreb in 1992. Two human rights officers were deployed with a mandate to provide support to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Former Yugoslavia, following a recommendation of the Commission of Human Rights. In 1993, a small office was set up in Guatemala to assist the expert named by the Commission on Human Rights. A year later, a fully fledged office was established in Cambodia to take over the human rights unit of the UN electoral mission in that country, on the expiry of its mandate.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda saw the biggest challenge to date to my Office. Responding to a call of the Commission on Human Rights, which was deeply concerned at the grave violations that had taken place in Rwanda, we reached agreement with the Government of Rwanda to set up a large human rights operation in the devastated country.
There has been a steady increase in the Office’s field activities since then. From one small field presence in 1992, we can count now twenty-three field presences world-wide, the majority of them established in the African continent.
When do we establish a field presence? Why is there a field presence in a given country and not in others? What are the factors that determine the opening of a field presence?
The origins of field presences are in fact multiple. A field presence may be set up following a resolution of the Commission of Human Rights (e.g. Cambodia and Former Yugoslavia), or a resolution of the Security Council (e.g. Abkhazia-Georgia), or as a result of specific agreements with the Government concerned (e.g. Colombia, Malawi). In some situations, an office has been established as a response to an on-going human rights emergency. Such was the case for example in Rwanda after the genocide. In other cases personnel from my Office form part of a wider UN involvement where our expertise can combine and complement that of other UN partners, as, for example, in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia. We also have cooperative arrangements with other regional organizations such as the OSCE (e.g. Abkhazia-Georgia), where each organisation can bring added-value for the benefit of the people of the host country.
Field presences may have a mandate to monitor the human rights situation in a given country. The monitoring of breaches of international humanitarian law might also be part of their mandate. This monitoring will lead to interventions by human rights officers vis-a-vis the local authorities with a view to preventing and protecting human rights in a given context. This should not be seen as substituting for the role of the local authorities. Far from that: our goal is to prevent human rights abuses and to encourage Governmental authorities, the judiciary and law enforcement officials to apply human rights standards and to guarantee the rule of law.
Field presences often have a monitoring mandate combined with one of providing technical assistance. In fact, both aspects are complementary as monitoring allows a better assessment of the country needs for the purposes of providing technical assistance. Also, through the provision of technical assistance, there is a constant and regular contact with the beneficiaries, resulting in a better assessment of the situation on the ground. Examples of field presences with this double mandate are our offices in Abkhazia-Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Croatia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are also field presences which have an exclusive technical cooperation mandate. Such is the case for our offices in Gaza, Guatemala, El Salvador, Indonesia, Malawi, Mongolia, and South Africa. The primary objective is to strengthen national capacities through human rights awareness programmes and providing specific advice on technical issues according to the country’s specific needs.
The activities undertaken by field offices are multiple: they can include the monitoring of and reporting on human rights violations and/or breaches of international humanitarian law; training of law enforcement officials including police, armed forces and prison personnel; training of judges, lawyers, teachers, community leaders; advice on curricula with a view to ensuring proper human rights education at all levels; trial monitoring; advice on legislation; human rights promotion and awareness campaigns; strengthening of national capacity including direct assistance to the judiciary, national institutions, non-governmental organizations and civil society; monitoring displacement while promoting basic human rights standards, in particular the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement; and providing advice on National Plans of Action on Human Rights and National Plans of Education on Human Rights as recommended by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. While carrying out these activities, field offices take due consideration of the recommendations made by the treaty-bodies and special mechanisms of the Commission of Human Rights with a view to facilitating their implementation.
Perhaps the best way of illustrating what a field presence does is to give a concrete example. Our Office in Colombia is a good case to mention as it has a broad mandate and illustrates the complementarity between monitoring and technical cooperation. Some of you may already be familiar with the activities of our Bogotá office as it was formerly headed by a distinguished Spanish diplomat, Ambassador Almudena Mazarrasa. I was deeply impressed by her commitment, and that of her colleagues, when I visited Columbia in October 1998. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the valuable support that the Spanish Government has given and continues to give to our field office in Colombia and to the work of my Office generally and to pay tribute to the Spanish Permanent Representative in Geneva and the staff of his Mission for their support.
The office in Colombia was created following a recommendation by the Commission on Human Rights and on the invitation of the President of Colombia. Agreement on the mandate was reached in November 1996 and the first human rights officers were deployed in April 1997. The Office has a mandate to monitor the human rights situation with a view to advising the Colombian authorities on the formulation and implementation of policies, programmes and measures to promote and protect human rights. Its constant monitoring through regular visits to the field, contacts with the relevant authorities, the different parties to the conflict, the NGO community, the church, the displaced and representatives of civil society allows the Office to have an understanding of the highly complex situation that Colombians face in their day to day lives. The Office, through its interventions vis-a-vis the authorities, exercises its preventive function by alerting them to imminent massacres or displacements of people.
Efforts are currently being undertaken to set up an alert system that will increase the Colombian authorities’ capacity to intervene in time to prevent human rights violations. On several occasions, the Office has been invited to present views concerning national legislation. In line with our basic premise of not seeking to substitute the responsibilities of the local authorities but to empower them by providing the relevant tools and assistance, the Office has concluded six agreements with key local authorities. These agreements aim at, for example, assisting the Government to elaborate a National Plan of Action on Human Rights; improving the system of reception of complaints of the Office of the Ombudsperson; assisting the Office of the Public Prosecutor in improving the system for protection of witnesses and victims of human rights violations; the design of a computerized system within the National University to monitor the implementation of the international recommendations made by the different UN human rights mechanisms and; assisting in the elaboration of a human rights curricula for the Judiciary School. These are just a few examples of what the Colombia Office does in terms of technical cooperation.
My Office’s development of field presences has brought a number of challenges that we are learning to face step by step. One of our objectives is to work closely with other actors in the field of human rights, some of whom have longer experience in the field. We base our approach on an understanding of each other’s mandates, capacities and limitations. I believe we have made considerable progress in this respect.
The Office seeks to maintain contacts with all the main actors: with Governments, opposition groups, non-governmental organizations, the media, UN agencies, regional organizations, the ICRC, the donor community and above all with the host society, who are our main beneficiary. It is only through working with all the actors in a spirit of constructive dialogue and with transparency and respect for each other’s mandates, that we have a chance to succeed.
In this connection, my Office has concluded several Memoranda of Understanding with other United Nations partners with a view to enhancing cooperation both at headquarters and field level. Examples of this are the Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations with whom we have joint field operations. With UNESCO under the leadership of Francisco Mayor, a joint letter was sent to Governments with a view to enhancing efforts in the area of human rights education programmes. In our office in El Salvador, for example, a National Committee for Human Rights Education composed of key national authorities has been established with a view to elaborating and implementing a National Plan of Action for Human Rights Education. Representatives of the civil society and the NGO community as well as UNESCO and UNICEF will be providing support to the Committee in the development of the Plan.
My Office continuously strives to improve the capacity of and support for field presences. We have introduced a Code of Conduct for every staff member working for our Office; we have established a project-approach to all field presences with a view to encouraging serious strategic planning before going to the field; field presences are subject to periodic evaluations as well as to internal and external auditing exercises; we have established an internal field presence task force to cope with urgent matters related to our field activities; annual heads of field presences meetings take place in Geneva with a view to encouraging an exchange of best practices amongst the Directors of our field offices and enhancing the dialogue between the field and headquarters; the Methodology Team at headquarters has developed a number of training manuals and guidelines with a view to giving proper relevant tools for our officers before deployment; a systematic briefing and de-briefing mechanism for all field human rights officers has been put in place; a committee for the recruitment of staff for field assignments has been established with a view to encouraging transparency in the selection process.
We are also conscious of the dangers involved in working in certain environments, notably in conflict situations or where the security situation is still precarious. The nature of our work, that of highlighting human rights violations, increases our vulnerability. I attach the greatest importance to the security of our staff and in that connection, appropriate security measures are taken before, during and after the existence of any field operation. And it is vitally important that appropriate measures are taken to ensure that once we leave a certain country the lives of those who had particular contacts with us are not put at risk.
Field presences are costly and funding is always an issue. All of our field presences except for the Office in Cambodia, depend on extra-budgetary funding, that is, on voluntary contributions by Member States. Last year, with a view to enhancing our capacity to attract contributions, my Office recruited a professional fund-raiser. Particular efforts have been undertaken to establish a system for approaching donors in a professional and transparent manner. Our first annual appeal will take place at the end of this month. I hope Governments, including Spain, will respond generously to our needs.
Field presences are not meant to stay forever in a given country. Our main goal is in fact to strengthen national capacity while providing the appropriate tools to improve the human rights situation. Therefore, when planning the setting-up of a field presence, we should already be thinking of an exit strategy leaving behind tangible national capacities able to develop.
I mentioned at the beginning of my speech that my Office was examining ways to better promote and protect human rights. A strategy to which I attach particular importance is regional cooperation. We have taken a number of steps to implement regional strategies as recommended in the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action of 1993. It was in Teheran in 1998 that a regional framework was adopted for the Asia Pacific region, bringing together representatives of governments, national institutions and non-governmental organizations with a view to launching a regional strategy to better promote and protect human rights. Four main pillars were considered: national plans of action; strengthening national capacity; human rights education, economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. Since the Teheran meeting, several other regional meetings touching upon specific human rights matters have taken place allowing participants to share their national experiences and to identify best practices. In each of the meetings, participants have been reporting on progress made in their respective countries since their last gathering. My Office has been servicing each of these meetings and will continue to provide technical assistance upon request of governments.
Over a month ago, my Office launched a similar exercise for the Latin American and Caribbean region. The event took place in Quito, Ecuador resulting in the adoption by consensus of relevant conclusions together with a regional framework for technical cooperation activities in the said region. At this meeting, I announced the appointment of my regional adviser for the Latin American and Caribbean region, former President of Chile, Patricio Aylwin. Similar appointments of highly qualified regional human rights experts are being made for the other regions too.
These efforts aim at protecting and promoting human rights through the implementation of activities whether these are at a regional, sub-regional or national level. To carry out these activities in the field, appropriate partnerships need to be established with key regional, sub-regional or national actors. Our goal is to translate human rights standards and norms into reality by taking a very practical approach, that of empowering people and building on national capacities. To achieve this goal, we have realized that our message can be best heard if we move closer to such realities.
As diplomats you may find yourselves confronted with difficult situations, you may be exposed to human rights abuses or faced with situations of conflict. We might be working in a given country where it is important for us to seek your support whether political, financial or to bring assistance to human rights victims for example. We will most probably meet at international conferences, meetings or at the Commission on Human Rights. Your statements during such events can contribute to improving the human rights situation in a given country. There is a lot you can do to bring about positive change. My Office will continue in its efforts to promote and protect human rights. I am confident that you will join us in this difficult but challenging and rewarding task. Thank you.
Madrid - January 2000
Speech by Mary Robinson
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure and honour for me to be here today to talk about the activities that my Office is undertaking with a view to promoting and protecting human rights and to listen to ideas you may have which might help us better achieve our goal.
I propose to focuss on the subject of human rights field presences. The concept is relatively recent but already field presences form an important part of the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and of other human rights organisations.
From an Office where most of the activities were concentrated in Geneva, we have in recent years expanded considerably by establishing presences in each of the continents. By doing this, we have managed to get closer to our direct beneficiaries and consequently to have a greater impact. The establishment of field offices has also allowed us to improve our assessment of the human rights situation in a given country and hence to understand the particular needs and difficulties. This direct and continuous assessment facilitates the identification of ways whereby we can provide the support for national capacity building required in a country.
The first human rights field presence was established in Zagreb in 1992. Two human rights officers were deployed with a mandate to provide support to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Former Yugoslavia, following a recommendation of the Commission of Human Rights. In 1993, a small office was set up in Guatemala to assist the expert named by the Commission on Human Rights. A year later, a fully fledged office was established in Cambodia to take over the human rights unit of the UN electoral mission in that country, on the expiry of its mandate.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda saw the biggest challenge to date to my Office. Responding to a call of the Commission on Human Rights, which was deeply concerned at the grave violations that had taken place in Rwanda, we reached agreement with the Government of Rwanda to set up a large human rights operation in the devastated country.
There has been a steady increase in the Office’s field activities since then. From one small field presence in 1992, we can count now twenty-three field presences world-wide, the majority of them established in the African continent.
When do we establish a field presence? Why is there a field presence in a given country and not in others? What are the factors that determine the opening of a field presence?
The origins of field presences are in fact multiple. A field presence may be set up following a resolution of the Commission of Human Rights (e.g. Cambodia and Former Yugoslavia), or a resolution of the Security Council (e.g. Abkhazia-Georgia), or as a result of specific agreements with the Government concerned (e.g. Colombia, Malawi). In some situations, an office has been established as a response to an on-going human rights emergency. Such was the case for example in Rwanda after the genocide. In other cases personnel from my Office form part of a wider UN involvement where our expertise can combine and complement that of other UN partners, as, for example, in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia. We also have cooperative arrangements with other regional organizations such as the OSCE (e.g. Abkhazia-Georgia), where each organisation can bring added-value for the benefit of the people of the host country.
Field presences may have a mandate to monitor the human rights situation in a given country. The monitoring of breaches of international humanitarian law might also be part of their mandate. This monitoring will lead to interventions by human rights officers vis-a-vis the local authorities with a view to preventing and protecting human rights in a given context. This should not be seen as substituting for the role of the local authorities. Far from that: our goal is to prevent human rights abuses and to encourage Governmental authorities, the judiciary and law enforcement officials to apply human rights standards and to guarantee the rule of law.
Field presences often have a monitoring mandate combined with one of providing technical assistance. In fact, both aspects are complementary as monitoring allows a better assessment of the country needs for the purposes of providing technical assistance. Also, through the provision of technical assistance, there is a constant and regular contact with the beneficiaries, resulting in a better assessment of the situation on the ground. Examples of field presences with this double mandate are our offices in Abkhazia-Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Croatia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are also field presences which have an exclusive technical cooperation mandate. Such is the case for our offices in Gaza, Guatemala, El Salvador, Indonesia, Malawi, Mongolia, and South Africa. The primary objective is to strengthen national capacities through human rights awareness programmes and providing specific advice on technical issues according to the country’s specific needs.
The activities undertaken by field offices are multiple: they can include the monitoring of and reporting on human rights violations and/or breaches of international humanitarian law; training of law enforcement officials including police, armed forces and prison personnel; training of judges, lawyers, teachers, community leaders; advice on curricula with a view to ensuring proper human rights education at all levels; trial monitoring; advice on legislation; human rights promotion and awareness campaigns; strengthening of national capacity including direct assistance to the judiciary, national institutions, non-governmental organizations and civil society; monitoring displacement while promoting basic human rights standards, in particular the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement; and providing advice on National Plans of Action on Human Rights and National Plans of Education on Human Rights as recommended by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. While carrying out these activities, field offices take due consideration of the recommendations made by the treaty-bodies and special mechanisms of the Commission of Human Rights with a view to facilitating their implementation.
Perhaps the best way of illustrating what a field presence does is to give a concrete example. Our Office in Colombia is a good case to mention as it has a broad mandate and illustrates the complementarity between monitoring and technical cooperation. Some of you may already be familiar with the activities of our Bogotá office as it was formerly headed by a distinguished Spanish diplomat, Ambassador Almudena Mazarrasa. I was deeply impressed by her commitment, and that of her colleagues, when I visited Columbia in October 1998. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the valuable support that the Spanish Government has given and continues to give to our field office in Colombia and to the work of my Office generally and to pay tribute to the Spanish Permanent Representative in Geneva and the staff of his Mission for their support.
The office in Colombia was created following a recommendation by the Commission on Human Rights and on the invitation of the President of Colombia. Agreement on the mandate was reached in November 1996 and the first human rights officers were deployed in April 1997. The Office has a mandate to monitor the human rights situation with a view to advising the Colombian authorities on the formulation and implementation of policies, programmes and measures to promote and protect human rights. Its constant monitoring through regular visits to the field, contacts with the relevant authorities, the different parties to the conflict, the NGO community, the church, the displaced and representatives of civil society allows the Office to have an understanding of the highly complex situation that Colombians face in their day to day lives. The Office, through its interventions vis-a-vis the authorities, exercises its preventive function by alerting them to imminent massacres or displacements of people.
Efforts are currently being undertaken to set up an alert system that will increase the Colombian authorities’ capacity to intervene in time to prevent human rights violations. On several occasions, the Office has been invited to present views concerning national legislation. In line with our basic premise of not seeking to substitute the responsibilities of the local authorities but to empower them by providing the relevant tools and assistance, the Office has concluded six agreements with key local authorities. These agreements aim at, for example, assisting the Government to elaborate a National Plan of Action on Human Rights; improving the system of reception of complaints of the Office of the Ombudsperson; assisting the Office of the Public Prosecutor in improving the system for protection of witnesses and victims of human rights violations; the design of a computerized system within the National University to monitor the implementation of the international recommendations made by the different UN human rights mechanisms and; assisting in the elaboration of a human rights curricula for the Judiciary School. These are just a few examples of what the Colombia Office does in terms of technical cooperation.
My Office’s development of field presences has brought a number of challenges that we are learning to face step by step. One of our objectives is to work closely with other actors in the field of human rights, some of whom have longer experience in the field. We base our approach on an understanding of each other’s mandates, capacities and limitations. I believe we have made considerable progress in this respect.
The Office seeks to maintain contacts with all the main actors: with Governments, opposition groups, non-governmental organizations, the media, UN agencies, regional organizations, the ICRC, the donor community and above all with the host society, who are our main beneficiary. It is only through working with all the actors in a spirit of constructive dialogue and with transparency and respect for each other’s mandates, that we have a chance to succeed.
In this connection, my Office has concluded several Memoranda of Understanding with other United Nations partners with a view to enhancing cooperation both at headquarters and field level. Examples of this are the Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations with whom we have joint field operations. With UNESCO under the leadership of Francisco Mayor, a joint letter was sent to Governments with a view to enhancing efforts in the area of human rights education programmes. In our office in El Salvador, for example, a National Committee for Human Rights Education composed of key national authorities has been established with a view to elaborating and implementing a National Plan of Action for Human Rights Education. Representatives of the civil society and the NGO community as well as UNESCO and UNICEF will be providing support to the Committee in the development of the Plan.
My Office continuously strives to improve the capacity of and support for field presences. We have introduced a Code of Conduct for every staff member working for our Office; we have established a project-approach to all field presences with a view to encouraging serious strategic planning before going to the field; field presences are subject to periodic evaluations as well as to internal and external auditing exercises; we have established an internal field presence task force to cope with urgent matters related to our field activities; annual heads of field presences meetings take place in Geneva with a view to encouraging an exchange of best practices amongst the Directors of our field offices and enhancing the dialogue between the field and headquarters; the Methodology Team at headquarters has developed a number of training manuals and guidelines with a view to giving proper relevant tools for our officers before deployment; a systematic briefing and de-briefing mechanism for all field human rights officers has been put in place; a committee for the recruitment of staff for field assignments has been established with a view to encouraging transparency in the selection process.
We are also conscious of the dangers involved in working in certain environments, notably in conflict situations or where the security situation is still precarious. The nature of our work, that of highlighting human rights violations, increases our vulnerability. I attach the greatest importance to the security of our staff and in that connection, appropriate security measures are taken before, during and after the existence of any field operation. And it is vitally important that appropriate measures are taken to ensure that once we leave a certain country the lives of those who had particular contacts with us are not put at risk.
Field presences are costly and funding is always an issue. All of our field presences except for the Office in Cambodia, depend on extra-budgetary funding, that is, on voluntary contributions by Member States. Last year, with a view to enhancing our capacity to attract contributions, my Office recruited a professional fund-raiser. Particular efforts have been undertaken to establish a system for approaching donors in a professional and transparent manner. Our first annual appeal will take place at the end of this month. I hope Governments, including Spain, will respond generously to our needs.
Field presences are not meant to stay forever in a given country. Our main goal is in fact to strengthen national capacity while providing the appropriate tools to improve the human rights situation. Therefore, when planning the setting-up of a field presence, we should already be thinking of an exit strategy leaving behind tangible national capacities able to develop.
I mentioned at the beginning of my speech that my Office was examining ways to better promote and protect human rights. A strategy to which I attach particular importance is regional cooperation. We have taken a number of steps to implement regional strategies as recommended in the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action of 1993. It was in Teheran in 1998 that a regional framework was adopted for the Asia Pacific region, bringing together representatives of governments, national institutions and non-governmental organizations with a view to launching a regional strategy to better promote and protect human rights. Four main pillars were considered: national plans of action; strengthening national capacity; human rights education, economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. Since the Teheran meeting, several other regional meetings touching upon specific human rights matters have taken place allowing participants to share their national experiences and to identify best practices. In each of the meetings, participants have been reporting on progress made in their respective countries since their last gathering. My Office has been servicing each of these meetings and will continue to provide technical assistance upon request of governments.
Over a month ago, my Office launched a similar exercise for the Latin American and Caribbean region. The event took place in Quito, Ecuador resulting in the adoption by consensus of relevant conclusions together with a regional framework for technical cooperation activities in the said region. At this meeting, I announced the appointment of my regional adviser for the Latin American and Caribbean region, former President of Chile, Patricio Aylwin. Similar appointments of highly qualified regional human rights experts are being made for the other regions too.
These efforts aim at protecting and promoting human rights through the implementation of activities whether these are at a regional, sub-regional or national level. To carry out these activities in the field, appropriate partnerships need to be established with key regional, sub-regional or national actors. Our goal is to translate human rights standards and norms into reality by taking a very practical approach, that of empowering people and building on national capacities. To achieve this goal, we have realized that our message can be best heard if we move closer to such realities.
As diplomats you may find yourselves confronted with difficult situations, you may be exposed to human rights abuses or faced with situations of conflict. We might be working in a given country where it is important for us to seek your support whether political, financial or to bring assistance to human rights victims for example. We will most probably meet at international conferences, meetings or at the Commission on Human Rights. Your statements during such events can contribute to improving the human rights situation in a given country. There is a lot you can do to bring about positive change. My Office will continue in its efforts to promote and protect human rights. I am confident that you will join us in this difficult but challenging and rewarding task. Thank you.