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]