Below is an article published by Relief Web :

The Human Rights Council this afternoon held a general debate on a series of reports by the United Nations Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights and her Office, among which was a report by the Joint Inspection Unit concerning geographical representation among staff in the Office. It then held a general debate on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development.

The presentation of the reports and their summaries can be found in press release HRC/09/106 of 18 September 2009.

In the course of the discussion on the reports submitted to it, speakers said that with regard to the report of the Joint Inspection Unit, there was a dire need for maintenance of geographic balance in the composition of the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner, as statistics showed that more than 56 per cent of the posts in the Office were occupied by nationals of a single region. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights employees must elaborate various reports required by the Council, provide support to countries and execute many other important and sometimes sensitive tasks. The Office must therefore be representative of different nations, cultures, religions, and schools of political thoughts. It was of key importance that efforts to improve the regional representation were balanced with efforts to improve equitable geographic distribution, including to address the problems of under-represented countries as well as unrepresented countries, and when putting in place measures to improve the geographical diversity of staff, it was important that these were transparent and predictable.

The report on the right to truth focused on two elements that were very important for the realisation of this right, speakers said, including witness protection. This was a very important right, allowing victims to know the truth about violations, the identity of perpetrators and the circumstances in which the violations occurred. The Human Rights Council should tackle this fundamental topic in combating impunity and adopt initiatives on this fundamental right, which was complementary to the right to access to justice and the right to reparations. It was an indispensable right for the functioning of democracy, in that it linked to the right to access to information. The report rightly pointed out the importance of a legal framework to guarantee access to information pertaining to past conflict and transitional justice processes. Finally, for the near future it was necessary to recognize that the Council was the most effective mechanism in this regard.

Enrique Roman-Morey of the Joint Inspection Unit said the importance of the work conducted by the High Commissioner herself and her Office needed to be recognized. The Joint Inspection Unit had also taken note of each of the preoccupations and recommendations, and these would be incorporated in the review of these issues. Regarding the issue of mobility, Mr. Roman-Moray said that the Joint Inspection Unit was currently conducting a system-wide report on the mobility of United Nations staff, which was strictly related to the geographical distribution of its staff.

Carl Ward of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that a number of delegations today made a reference to a Strategic Management Plan of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and he said that the document in question was in fact the Strategic Framework. The former High Commissioner had indicated last year, and Ms. Pillay had concurred, that this document would be shared with the Council in its draft form. The next Framework was due next year and would cover the strategic direction for the following biennium.

Speaking on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, speakers said, among other things, that at the time of economic and financial crises, violations of economic, social and cultural rights became more severe. It was essential for these rights to be given equal status in comparison with civil and political rights. Right to development criteria should be developed by the high level task force of the Working Group on the right to development, and be completed at the earliest to create a meaningful mechanism to the implementation process. The present crisis had once again proven the need for policy space for developing countries to exercise the right to development when such challenges occurred. Special attention needed to be given to developing countries and least developed countries as it was clear that these had been most affected by the crisis.

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