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Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights[a] (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1993[3] in the wake of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.

For similarly named entities, see United Nations human rights organization (disambiguation).

Abbreviation

OHCHR
HCDH

20 December 1993[1]

Agency

Active

Geneva, Switzerland
New York City, United States

Volker Türk, High Commissioner for Human Rights[2]

The office is headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the United Nations System and acts as the secretariat of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The eighth and current High Commissioner is Volker Türk of Austria, who succeeded Michelle Bachelet of Chile on 8 September 2022.[2]


In 2018–2019, the department had a budget of US$201.6 million (3.7 per cent of the United Nations regular budget),[4] and approximately 1,300 employees based in Geneva and New York City.[5] It is an ex officio member of the Committee of the United Nations Development Group.[6]

Criticisms[edit]

Journalist Emma Reilly leaked e-mails in 2020 and 2021 in which the OHCHR provided names of Chinese participants in UN human rights activities to China on request. This occurred on multiple occasions from before 2012 to at least 2019, despite an explicit ban against this sort of activity. In some cases, after obtaining their name in advance from the UN, the Chinese Communist Party made sure an activist was not able to leave China for Geneva to attend.[19][20][21]

(replaced by Human Rights Council in 2006)

United Nations Commission on Human Rights

United Nations Human Rights Council

United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Ramcharan, Bertrand G. (2004). "The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – The Challenges of International Protection". International Studies in Human Rights. 71. Kluwer Publishers.

Hobbins, A.J. (2001). "Humphrey and the High Commissioner: the Genesis of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights". Journal of the History of International Law (III): 38–74. :10.1163/15718050120956893.

doi

de Zayas, Alfred (2002). "Human Rights, United Nations High Commissioner for". In Helmut Volger (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of the United Nations. Kluwer. pp. 217–223.

de Zayas, Alfred (2000). "United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights". In Rudolf Bernhardt (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Public International Law. Vol. IV. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 1129–1132.

Gaer, Felice D.; Broecker, Christen L., eds. (2013). The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Conscience for the World. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.  978-90-04-25425-1.

ISBN

Official website

on the rule of law work conducted by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

United Nations Rule of Law: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights