Presentation to States of the Annual Report 2016

Statement by the High Commissioner

30 May 2017

Excellencies,
Colleagues and friends,
I am honoured to present to you the Annual Report of my Office for 2016.   It outlines the achievements and struggles of my Office in the face of intensifying challenges.

Amid today’s extreme global turbulence, and dashed hopes in some key respects, I am convinced the leaders of States and their peoples need the guidance and wisdom which are embodied in human rights norms.   Our grasp of the intrinsic equality of every human being, and the equal rights of all to dignity and fundamental freedoms, are essential if we are to live together.

But universal commitments, such as the pledge to battle discrimination based on race, sex, belief, ethnicity, class, caste or other category, are being increasingly challenged today.   I am also deeply concerned about attacks on one of the fundamentals of government: respect for the rights of all people to participate in decision-making.  Over the past year many States have continued to tighten their restrictions on registration and funding for civil society organisations.   Independent media and judges are also under growing threat.

These and many other trends feed into a deepening erosion of human rights principles.   And the result, in many regions, is increasing instability – earthquake zones which may pitch into crisis at the slightest tremor.   For it is human rights that create and protect stable, resilient States and systems.   Upholding human rights, via an independent and impartial rule of law, is the best, most practical and cost-effective way to prevent deprivation and conflict.

In such a context, the work that is done by my staff is quite simply essential.  And I am proud of what we have achieved in 2016.

Our work on laws and norms continues to help States develop consensus about essential principles and institutions.   In 2016, 44 new ratifications of or accessions to the human rights treaties were deposited with the Secretary-General. More than 100 different States have now served as members of the Human Rights Council, during its decade of existence; I note particularly the support given to representation of Less Developed Countries and Small Island States by the Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund. Every State in the world has twice accepted the scrutiny of the Council’s ground-breaking Universal Periodic Review – another landmark to anchor the Council’s legitimacy and relevance. Moreover, during 2016, contributions by NGOs in the Council’s sessions increased by 25%, a very significant benchmark.

Technical cooperation by my Office is inspired by our work on monitoring and reporting human rights conditions on the ground.  It aims to translate international human rights law and principles into practical methods, approaches, procedures and tools to be applied by international, regional and national actors, in line with the thematic priorities we have developed.   Our report outlines an enormous range of this work, in every region, and it would not be practical for me to attempt an extensive or comprehensive description here today.   But I do want to emphasise a number of key points.

Firstly, over the course of 2016, we gave heightened priority to our advocacy, monitoring and assistance work on migration.   I dispatched monitoring missions to a series of European border and transit locations, including Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to better assist States in implementing human rights-based responses; and in Serbia, my staff trained front-line responders on human rights law and provided support to monitor places of migrant detention.   My Office and UNSMIL also jointly reported on violations of migrants’ rights in Libya.

I also want to emphasise the continuing importance of our work towards the 2030 Agenda. In 2016, this notably meant assisting Member States to develop SDG indicators, with the UN Statistical Commission’s Inter-Agency Agenda and Expert Group on the SDGs requesting that my Office serve as a custodial agency responsible for developing methodologies on a number of data collection and reporting indicators.   We will never improve any situation if we cannot perceive its gaps and problematic zones.

A word about early warning, and the work of mainstreaming Human Rights Up Front across the UN system.   My Office has lead responsibility for several areas of this work, and in 2016 we developed tools and processes for better action-oriented early warning analysis and input across the Organisation.   The UN’s operational responses have been boosted by deployment of multidisciplinary Light Teams, which are sent in a preventive mode to situations of concern.   I am keen to continue this work with the new Secretary General, whose emphasis on prevention, and on the need to integrate and coordinate the three pillars, is most promising.

Our combat against discrimination – including based on race, gender or disability, against indigenous peoples or ethnic minorities, or against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons – is at the core of everything we do.  The religious hatred, xenophobia, homophobia and outright racism which have returned to front stage across a wide number of regions are a shocking outrage to universality and principle, and I welcome any thoughts you may have on how we can heighten our already intense focus on this work area.

Fighting to keep the democratic space as open as possible is another key part of our work, including the need to build capacity among civil society groups, so they can claim their rights.   Assisting National Human Rights Institutions to take on a strong and fully independent role, in compliance with the Paris Principles, is also key to ensuring healthy national human rights protection systems.

Our current planning cycle will end in 2017, and we expect that the majority of the expected accomplishments and targets set out in the Office Management Plan will be achieved in the course of these coming 12 months.   In a fast-changing global context, demands on my Office are increasing in volume and complexity.   To effectively respond to this changing environment, we must be a strong and effective office that is flexible, adaptable and up for the challenges of our time.  We have to step up our work with partners within and outside the system – especially at the regional level to translate the standards and outputs of the mechanisms into positive change in policy, programmes and behaviour on the ground.   This places a premium on strategic coordination and internal integration. And this, in essence, is a key objective of my Change initiative which was presented to the 5th Committee of the GA last year: requesting a more balanced global presence, which shifted staff to less expensive duty stations in the regions and brought our regional representatives to the appropriate level, at no additional cost to the organisation.

Although the General Assembly’s deferral of our Change Initiative has delayed our efforts, we remain fully committed to working with you on a revised proposal for strengthening our regional  presences, to enable more effective delivery on our mandate. 

Focusing on the financial situation of my Office, last year we recorded US$129.6 million in voluntary contributions, the highest ever in OHCHR’s history.   While I welcome this increased support, I should also stress that for my Office to adequately respond to all of the requests it receives would require an income of at least US$250 million every year in voluntary contributions – as reflected in the Annual Appeal we launched earlier this year.   Thus far, in 2017, we have received less than US$ 45 million in extra-budgetary resources. This will not take us far.

To bring in the resources we need, and after years of efforts to broaden our donor base, I am proud to announce that we have recently signed a landmark partnership with Microsoft, which we hope will be the first of many.   This is part of our increasing outreach to engage new audiences.   Another such effort is our Stand Up For Human Rights campaign, which seeks to galvanize people to take a personal stand in their everyday lives for the human rights of those around them.

Plans are also underway for next year’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.   I trust they will be the occasion for a strong and united renewal of our joint determination to realise human rights, in the interests of your States and peoples.  You will be hearing more on these plans in the coming months.

I look forward to your questions.

Thank you.