The current seven regional offices–two in Africa (East and Southern Africa), two in Asia (Southeast Asia and the Pacific), one in the Arab Region (Middle East and the Gulf), one in Central Asia, and one in Latin America–will be adapted to conform to the vision described in the Plan of Action. Those in Central Asia, East Africa and Southeast Asia will be strengthened, and three new offices will be opened for Central America, North Africa and West Africa. In addition, the functions of the New York Office will be enlarged to ensure closer cooperation with the countries in North America and with the multilateral financial and development institutions located there.

A United Nations Regional Centre for Documentation and Training, similar to the existing Regional Human Rights Centre for Central Africa in Yaoundé, will be established in Qatar.

The final location of the new regional offices is still under discussion. Regional offices are expected to function as resource and support centres for OHCHR country offices, human rights components of United Nations peace missions, and OHCHR human rights officers in the countries within the region, but are not responsible for supervising country offices.

Regional offices, which report to the Geographic Coordinators in Geneva, as country offices do, are expected to reduce the amount of regional activities conducted from Headquarters, thus reducing travel expenses.

OHCHR has country offices in Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, Palestine, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo) and Uganda. In 2006-2007, OHCHR plans to establish new offices in Bolivia and Togo. These two countries were selected according to criteria laid out in the Plan of Action, namely: the seriousness of the human rights situation, the potential for OHCHR to positively influence the situation, OHCHR’s ability to operate under a broad mandate, and the openness of the government and civil society to work with OHCHR to close implementation gaps. OHCHR will work to adapt its existing country offices in Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal and Uganda, and its office in Palestine, in an effort to consolidate their efforts and strengthen their capacities, in accordance with the vision contained in the Plan of Action.

OHCHR’s offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro will be phased out during the next biennium, except in Kosovo where the Office will be strengthened.

Human Rights Components of Peace Missions

In its Plan of Action, OHCHR sets out its intent to review its support to human rights components in United Nations peace operations with the aim of making that support more effective and of integrating human rights into all components of peace operations.

OHCHR has been working with other partners within the United Nations system in pursuit of a more coherent policy framework for human rights in integrated missions. Such a framework acknowledges that all United Nations entities have a responsibility to ensure that human rights are protected through and within their operations in the field, and that OHCHR, as lead agency on human rights issues, has a central role to play by providing expert guidance and support to human rights components. The head of the human rights component serves as the representative of the High Commissioner, with a principal reporting line to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and a secondary reporting line to OHCHR to provide guidance and functional support.

OHCHR will work towards enabling the human rights components to implement activities focusing on four areas: ensuring that peace processes emphasize justice and equity; preventing and redressing human rights violations; building capacities and institutions; and mainstreaming human rights into all United Nations programmes.

In its Plan of Action, OHCHR sets out its intent to review its support to human rights components in United Nations peace operations with the aim of In 2006, OHCHR will review the effectiveness of human rights officers working within the United Nations Country Teams and will hold discussions with UNDP/UNDG to establish standard operating procedures and minimum operation conditions.

Human rights officers, the fourth category of field deployment, assess a country’s human rights needs and advise the Resident Coordinator, heads of United Nations agencies, and Country Teams as a whole on human rights-based programme strategies and implementation. It has been proposed that human rights officers should also advise governments on human rights issues and work with national human rights institutions and civil society.