Global Policy Forum

The management review of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had observed a growing disparity between the Office's resources and its ever-increasing workload, Norway's representative told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning, as it continued its consideration of the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) on the comprehensive review of the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Established by the General Assembly in 1993, the OHCHR is mandated to promote and protect the enjoyment and full realization by all people of all rights established in the United Nations Charter and other international human rights instruments. To address the gap between resources and the Office's growing number of mandates and operational activities, the General Assembly authorized a comprehensive management review in its resolution 56/253.

The OIOS report was a serious and honest effort to direct the Office of the High Commissioner towards improvement and greater efficiency, Norway's representative said. Implementation of many of its important recommendations was well under way. Yet, it was important to secure regular budget funding for the OHCHR, as voluntary contributions accounted for 67 per cent of the total budget of the Office, and only 88 of the 155 Professional positions were financed from the regular budget. He said, "It is not possible to do everything with so little resources and with the lack of predictability inflicted by such dependency on voluntary contributions."

Japan's representative said he valued the OIOS report on the OHCHR, and its recommendations, which related to organization and structure, executive management, information management, administrative and financial management and human resources management, overlapped with Japan's concerns. Japan was particularly concerned about the widespread assignment of project personnel and technical advisers to posts that should be performed by "core" staff and the absence of an established policy on assignments. His country was also concerned about the serious geographical imbalance in the composition of the OHCHR secretariat

Also stressing his concern with the distortion in the system of funding the OHCHR, India's representative noted the rapid increase in extrabudgetary funding in relation to regular budgetary resources in the financing of its operational activities. Extrabudgetary resources had more than doubled from $36 million in 1996-1997 to $79 million in 2000-2001. What was of even greater concern was that the mandated core activities of the Office were largely supported by voluntary contributions rather than by the regular budget.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services rightly pointed out that the priority status accorded to the human rights programme was not reflected in its regular budget resource base, Greece's representative said on behalf of the European Union and associated States. The Union was prepared to consider increased regular funding for the Treaty Bodies and the Special Procedures, taking into account the recommendations of the OIOS and keeping in mind that some elements were subject to the Secretary-General's ongoing reform efforts.

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