MONTHLY BRIEFING FOR MEMBER STATES ON FUNDING REQUIREMENTS

Thank you for taking part in this monthly briefing on HR field presences which will review the main HR related activities as well as significant HR developments in Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, FRY including Kosovo; Democratic Republic of Congo; Burundi; Cambodia; Colombia; and Afghanistan. The desk officers responsible for these countries will present to you briefly the most significant points, leaving enough time for questions/comments on the whole range of human rights activities by OHCHR on the ground. I know that most of our colleagues dealing with human rights may be at present in New York for the work of the Third Committee, yet I felt a certain sense of urgency about informing you with respect to our current activities and corresponding financial needs for 1999.

I should like to use this opportunity to share with you some of my impressions resulting from my recent visit to Colombia. As you know, the new Colombian President has expressed strong support for the strengthening of our office in Bogotà and of our activities throughout Colombia. During my visit, I signed an MOU with the Andean Commission of Jurists with whom we are planning an expanded range of activities in the context of our technical cooperation programme in that region. I should mention to you that the head of our office in Colombia, Ms. Almudena Mazarrasa - who has led the office with remarkable skill and dedication over the past years - has indicated to me that she will not seek an extension of her contract at the end of December. This means that we are now looking for new candidates that could be considered for this position and would welcome suggestions or candidates from you.
Secondly, on 6 November, the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and my Office signed an agreement concerning the activities of our field presence in the FRY, including Kosovo. With respect to Kosovo, my Office looks forward to developing a cooperative relationship with and supporting the work of the OSCE verification mission in Kosovo. The last report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council on 12 November (S/1998/1068) outlined some of the key areas of this cooperation -such as HR training; enhanced monitoring of human rights violations; as well as capacity building on HR so as to facilitate the return of IDPs and refugees to their communes and villages and prepare the ground for elections. My Office, together with DPA, DPKO, UNHCR and OCHA participated in the mission sent by the SG to the FRY and Kosovo which led to the report to which I just referred. In my view, this is an important example of a more integrated approach on the part of the UN and a concrete, practical application of the interface between humanitarian actors and human rights.

I should like to use this opportunity to express my deep appreciation for your generous financial support during the course of 1998. We have so far received over $ 31 million dollars in the various human rights trust funds and have firm pledges for an additional $ 5 million. This amount, while not meeting entirely our projected requirements for 1998 - it would be equivalent to 68% - would represent nevertheless an increase of 50 % with respect to the level of extra budgetary funds received by our Office in 1997 ($ 24 million). Also significant is the fact that over the course of this year the number of countries that have contributed to our various funds has increased from 46 in 1997 to 58 as of today in the current year. This represents an increase of more than 25 % and corresponds to my desire to see more and more member states take an active part, in keeping with their capacity to contribute, in the activities of the office of the HC for HR. It is my hope that we will be able to maintain or even improve these trends in 1999, as extra budgetary contributions continue to represent the principal resource for our activities in the field.
With respect to UNOPS-administered field presences, I should mention that we have funds available only until the end of the year for all such presences. However, in view of the six months minimum time span - the self discipline we have imposed upon ourselves by this arrangement with UNOPS - we still need your support to ensure before the end of this month contracts may be renewed for staff in these field presences for the first six months of 1999. In this connection, I would like to inform you that we plan to make full use of available unearmarked contributions for field activities and that the closing of our operation in Rwanda has generated savings in the order of US $ 3 million. I will be writing to contributors to the Rwanda operation in order to seek their agreement for a redeployment of these funds to meet our needs in Burundi and in the DRC. Details on the financial situation and budgets of these offices are available in the material provided to you: I will only emphasize that we need urgently $ 1.9 million in order to secure the continuation of operations through end June 1999, for Burundi, Colombia, and the FRY field presences. In addition, I would like to be able to secure additional unearmarked funds - perhaps in the region of $1 million initially - in 1999 for starting-up urgent activities such as in Afghanistan, Lesotho or Guinea Bissau to mention a few. This would enable us to create a sort of revolving fund which would be kept to a minimum and would not be used for current costs. This facility is available in UNOPS and I hope Governments will consider seriously the usefulness of contributing towards the creation of this capacity.

At the end of this month, the Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for technical cooperation will meet to review the activities of OHCHR in this area. I may anticipate to you that the VFTC has received so far $6.2 million and that there are $4.8 million of outstanding pledges for 1998. Altogether, the fund will have received in 1998 $11 million, the highest since its establishment in 1987 and a very substantial increase with respect to 1997. More significantly, however, the rate of implementation of projects and utilization of funds has increased considerably in 1998. This has been possible not only because technical cooperation (i.e. national capacity building; national institutions building; human rights education; etc.) is a priority area for our Office but also thanks to the flexibility afforded by the new structure in place since 1 February 1998 and, not least, through the establishment of an internal Project Review Committee which has, since April, met monthly as part of the Senior Policy Committee and has reviewed and/or approved 10 global projects; 7 regional projects; 35 country projects. Because of the increase in requests for cooperation and assistance in the area of technical cooperation, I have decided that the Project Review Committee will have to be reorganized and meet henceforth on a bi-weekly basis with the full support of the methodology unit in OHCHR as well as UNOPS. A consultant from UNOPS will be developing with our staff guides and manual on projects preparations which will facilitate the creation of a project approach ‘culture’ in OHCHR for all of its activities. Our cooperation with UNDP and other operational agencies of the UN has also become a standard feature of this programme. We also anticipate enhancing our resource mobilization abilities in the coming months both to secure adequate and predictable levels of funding and also to provide donors with even better reports on how pledges are utilized.

While we have drawn some encouragement from our accomplishments in 1998, we continue to reflect on requirements and challenges of 1999. The renewed commitments made by the wider human rights community on the occasion of the 50th anniversary will not be sustainable beyond December this year unless there is a concerted efforts on the part of each and every one of you for meeting the funding requirements of OHCHR in the coming year.

On 6 October we provided you with an initial draft containing our best estimates of extra-budgetary requirements for 1999. We have reviewed again these requirements and are able to share with you more details about the total $ 57.2 million, i.e. approximately 8% more than what we requested for 1998. We have prepared a package of information which contains the project briefs for the various HR field presences managed by UNOPS as well as the information available at present on the activities foreseen country by country in the area of technical cooperation as well as those concerning Victims of Torture; Contemporary Forms of Slavery; International Decade of the World's Indigenous People; Indigenous Populations as well as the Programme of Action of the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination and the Action for the Rights of the Child among others. My colleagues are ready to provide you with further information should this be required.

I would like to conclude my remarks by appealing to you and through you to your Governments not to reduce the level of support to my Office and our activities at a time when we are being called upon to assist a growing number of countries, individuals, institutions or bodies and carry out an increasing number of activities for the further promotion and protection of human rights.

Thank you