The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Establishment and Cooperation

The institutional starting point of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was General Assembly Resolution 48/141, adopted on 20 December 1993. It created the post of High Commissioner and provided for an office in Geneva and a liaison office in New York. Earlier, paragraph 18 of Part II of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted on 25 June, had only recommended that the Assembly give priority consideration to creating the post; it did not itself establish it.

The arrangement had a longer history of advocacy. Philip Alston's study traced earlier proposals supported by Uruguay, Costa Rica and non-governmental organizations, and linked the 1993 breakthrough to NGO campaigning and shifts in state positions after the Cold War. On 14 February 1994, the Assembly approved the Secretary-General's nomination of Ecuadorian diplomat José Ayala Lasso. He began his duties in Geneva on 5 April.

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Resolution 48/141 gave the High Commissioner the rank of Under-Secretary-General, appointed by the Secretary-General with General Assembly approval for a four-year term renewable once. The responsibilities covered civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, including the right to development. Their exercise had to take account of both universal human rights principles and the institutional framework of the UN Charter. The High Commissioner worked under the Secretary-General's authority, reporting to the Commission on Human Rights and, through the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly.

Specific means included dialogue with governments, coordination within the UN system, education and advisory services, and technical and financial assistance through bodies such as the Centre for Human Rights at the request of the states concerned. The resolution required resources from the UN regular budget without diverting development-programme funds. Alston recorded a budget of only US$1.4714 million and three professional staff for the High Commissioner's office in its first two years. These were the resources of the small office, not the total budget of the Centre for Human Rights and field operations.

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Initial operations depended on the existing Centre for Human Rights rather than creating every activity from scratch. The High Commissioner's first report explained the relationship as one in which the commissioner set policy direction and priorities and the Centre carried them out. This division still had to be translated into staffing, information and meeting arrangements.

On 30 May–1 June 1994, Ayala Lasso chaired the first meeting in Geneva of special rapporteurs, experts and working-group chairs. Participants identified emergencies, early warning, field visits, follow-up to recommendations and cooperation with treaty bodies as coordination priorities. The commissioner explained that he did not replace each mechanism's specific mandate. In September he also met the chairs of human rights treaty bodies. Cooperation thus initially took the form of information exchange and links between activities, rather than turning independent mechanisms into one person's subordinate investigative teams.

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After mass atrocities in Rwanda in 1994, the High Commissioner sought information from special rapporteurs, treaty bodies, African regional organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and NGOs, and visited the country to meet both sides in the conflict. At Canada's initiative and with support from a majority of members, the Commission on Human Rights convened a special session on 24–25 May. It appointed René Degni-Ségui as special rapporteur and decided to deploy field personnel to assist him.

The first report recorded that four of the six personnel initially planned were deployed between June and early August. A plan proposed in September expanded the target to 147 personnel to investigate past violations, observe current conditions, help restore confidence and support refugee return, and undertake technical cooperation in the justice sector. The figure of 147 was a planned deployment, not the number already in post. The report also identified shortages of logistics and specialized staff, prompting the commissioner to request standby support and donations from states.

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Technical cooperation continued and expanded the Centre for Human Rights' existing work. In July 1994, the High Commissioner visited Cambodia, coordinating the visit with the Secretary-General's Special Representative, examining the local office's work and discussing the rule of law with the government. The office helped draft legislation, trained judicial personnel, supported local human rights groups and assisted the government in reporting to treaty-monitoring bodies.

In Malawi, the commissioner signed a joint declaration on cooperation with the vice-president in August that year. A two-year programme was envisaged from January 1995, covering constitutional reform, legal assistance, police and military training, human rights education in schools and parliamentary support. An office in Lilongwe opened in mid-November 1994. These examples show that cooperation required state requests, personnel on the ground and distinct project plans; signing a declaration did not mean that all the reforms had already been completed.

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A Secretary-General's bulletin effective on 15 September 1997 consolidated the High Commissioner's office and the Centre for Human Rights into a single office and superseded the earlier organizational bulletin for the Centre. It clarified the chain of responsibility of the High Commissioner and deputy and listed the New York office, administrative functions, the Research and Right to Development Branch, the Support Services Branch, and the Activities and Programmes Branch.

The Support Services Branch prepared meetings and documents for human rights bodies and treaty-monitoring mechanisms and processed communications. The Activities and Programmes Branch managed technical cooperation, supported special rapporteurs, and planned and assisted field missions. The creation of the post in 1993, the assumption of duties and first coordination initiatives in 1994, and administrative consolidation in 1997 should therefore be understood separately. The central institutional challenge was gradually turning a broad mandate into sustainable staffing, funding and working procedures.

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