Mainstreaming technical cooperation in all areas of human rights.

The Commission on Human Rights, Recalling:

(a) That one of the principal purposes of the United Nations is to achieve international cooperation in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights;

(b) General Assembly resolution 926 (X) of 14 December 1955, in which the Assembly established the United Nations programme of advisory services in the field of human rights, and Economic and Social Council decision 1987/147 of 29 May 1987, pursuant to which the Secretary-General established the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights, as well as Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/57 of 17 April 1998,

Recalling also that the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, inter alia:

(a) Calls upon the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to assume a larger role in the promotion of human rights through cooperation with Member States and by an enhanced programme of advisory services in the field of human rights;

(b) Calls for a substantial expansion of existing voluntary funds for the above purpose;and

(c) Recommends that a comprehensive programme be established within the United Nations in order to help States in the task of building and strengthening adequate national structures which have a direct impact on the overall observance of human rights and the maintenance of the rule of law;

Mindful that the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights includes responsibilities, inter alia, for:

(a) The provision of advisory services and technical and financial assistance at the request of States;

(b) Enhancing international cooperation for the promotion and protection of all human rights;

(c) Coordination of human rights promotion and protection activities throughout the United Nations system;and

(d) Coordination of relevant United Nations education and public information programmes in the field of human rights;

Acknowledging the urgent need for further strengthening the provision of advisory services and technical cooperation by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,

1. Declares that advisory services and technical cooperation provided at the request of Governments with a view to developing national capacities in the field of human rights constitute one of the most efficient and effective means of promoting and protecting all human rights, democracy and the rule of law;

2. Reaffirms that developing and strengthening national capacities for the promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with national conditions provides the strongest foundation for effective and enduring international cooperation in the field of human rights;

3. Emphasizes the need for mainstreaming technical cooperation activities in all areas of human rights as an essential element of promotional approaches that build capacity and ensure effective solutions;

4. Reaffirms that monitoring operations undertaken in the field, in response to grave and massive violations of human rights, must progressively shift to a programme for enhancing national capacities and institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights through advisory services and technical cooperation if interventions in the field are to produce lasting results;

5. Calls upon the High Commissioner for Human Rights to include, as an integral part of all monitoring and preventive field operations, "exit strategies" based on the delivery of advisory services and technical cooperation and the building of national capacities;

6. Affirms the need for technical cooperation programmes to be grounded in national developmental objectives of the countries concerned and to be aimed at supporting the achievement of national development goals, programmes and policies, in keeping with international human rights standards, utilizing, to the maximum extent possible, national expertise in human rights;

7. Calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to offer advisory services to all countries irrespective of their economic status, keeping in mind the fact that human rights violations occur in all societies and in all parts of the world;

8. Welcomes the remarkable increase in the number of requests for advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights as an expression of the growing commitment of States to promote and protect human rights;

9. Calls upon the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take urgent measures to develop to the fullest extent the potential of advisory services and technical cooperation for the promotion and protection of all human rights and to accord these activities the highest priority;

10. Requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to examine ways and means by which the visibility and distinct identity of technical cooperation activities can be enhanced, thereby encouraging States in need of assistance in this field to consider making use of advisory services and technical cooperation in order to achieve the full enjoyment of all human rights;

11. Reaffirms the need to utilize, to the maximum extent possible, appropriate expertise available in developing countries for the implementation of technical cooperation projects in a manner that takes advantage of the positive potential of national and regional circumstances;

12. Calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare and submit to the Commission at its fifty-sixth session a compendium of institutions and resource centres in developing countries specializing in human rights-related activities with a view to promoting South-South cooperation;

13. Also calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to make available to the Commission on Human Rights on an annual basis details of the persons included on its roster of experts available for technical cooperation activities, to advertise widely in the media, especially in developing countries, its need for such experts and to invite all States to nominate experts for inclusion on the roster;

14. Further calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to elaborate, in close consultation with States, policy guidelines in the field of technical cooperation aimed at the building of national capacities and institutions;

15. Invites relevant United Nations treaty bodies, special rapporteurs and special representatives, as well as working groups, to include in their recommendations proposals for specific projects to be realized under the programme of advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights with a view to contributing to practical change in the human rights situation at the grass-roots level;

16. Invites the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to institutionalize measures for the systematic follow-up of recommendations made by special rapporteurs and independent experts on the provision of advisory services and technical cooperation and for identifying the resources required for the implementation of those recommendations;

17. Reaffirms that effective advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights require the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to play a leadership role and to coordinate activities of United Nations bodies and all specialized agencies active in this field;

18. Urges the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to improve its coordination with United Nations development agencies, within their respective mandates, and to provide advice relating to their activities through advocacy and dissemination of information regarding the critical role that social and economic development and poverty eradication play in any strategy to promote and realize all human rights;

19. Calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, to undertake an information campaign aimed at publicizing the importance of development for the promotion of human rights;

20. Calls upon the High Commissioner for Human Rights to include information on the implementation of the present resolution in her analytical report to the Commission at its fifty-sixth session on the progress and concrete achievements made, as well as obstacles encountered, in the implementation of the programme of advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights;

21. Decides to continue consideration of this subject at its fifty-seventh session.

59^th meeting
28 April 1999

[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 27 votes to 19, with 7 abstentions. See chap. XIX.]