UN HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE FIELD UN HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE FIELD TYPES OF FIELD PRESENCES OHCHR operates through two main types of field presences: stand-alone offices and collaborative arrangements. The first category is composed of country and regional offices, which are under the direct supervision of OHCHR. The second category consists of field presences with double reporting lines, namely, human rights components of Peace Missions, which report to the Head of the mission and the High Commissioner and Human Rights Advisers (HRAs), who report to resident coordinators and the High Commissioner. COUNTRY AND STAND-ALONE OFFICES REGIONAL OFFICES AND CENTRES OHCHR country and stand-alone offices are established in accordance with a standard agreement that is reached between OHCHR and a host government. A mandate typically includes human rights monitoring and analysis, protection, interaction with and the provision of assistance to the host government, other authorities, civil society, victims and many other counterparts through targeted technical cooperation activities, capacity-building and public reporting. Each agreement is tailored to a specific country situation and is based on the needs and opportunities that have been identified as a result of monitoring and dialogue with various stakeholders. These offices are primarily funded through voluntary contributions. The establishment of regional offices requires the consent of a host country. These presences cover multiple countries and a range of OHCHR’s thematic human rights priorities. They are instrumental in mainstreaming and integrating human rights into development, peacebuilding and humanitarian programming. Regional offices have an important role to play in supporting governments in their engagement with the international human rights mechanisms, specifically the human rights treaty bodies, the special procedures and the UPR. They also focus on cross-cutting regional human rights issues, in close cooperation with regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society. Regional offices support and cooperate with OHCHR country offices by providing them with assistance on institutional and thematic issues. OHCHR maintains regional centres with specific mandates that are established through General Assembly resolutions. Regional offices and centres are funded by the UN regular budget and voluntary contributions. OHCHR has 17 country or stand-alone offices, which consist of 15 country offices in Burundi (closed in March 2019), Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Liberia, Mauritania, Mexico, State of Palestine*, Syrian Arab Republic (based in Beirut), Tunisia, Uganda and Yemen and one field-based structure in Seoul that covers the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. OHCHR also operates the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. * Reference to the State of Palestine should be understood in compliance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19. 184 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2018 OHCHR maintains 12 regional presences, which are composed of 10 regional offices in East Africa (Addis Ababa), Southern Africa (Pretoria), West Africa (Dakar), work in peace operations and an appropriate level of backstopping at headquarters. South-East Asia (Bangkok), the Pacific (Suva), the Middle East and North Africa (Beirut), Central Asia (Bishkek), Europe (Brussels), Central America (Panama City) and South America (Santiago de Chile), a Sub-Regional Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa (Yaoundé) and a Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region (Doha). HUMAN RIGHTS COMPONENTS OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS AND SPECIAL POLITICAL MISSIONS During 2018, 12 UN peacekeeping and special political missions mandated to promote and protect human rights maintained a human rights component in: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo1, Libya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan (Darfur); the peacekeeping operation in Liberia completed its mandate on 30 March 2018. The Heads of human rights components of peace operations represent the High Commissioner in connection with the peace and security and human rights aspects of their missions. In addition to monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation on the ground, human rights components conducted a wide range of activities mandated by the Security Council, including technical assistance, capacity-building, investigations into serious human rights violations and support for follow-up actions related to the recommendations issued by the international human rights mechanisms. In 2018, OHCHR proactively engaged with Security Council members to integrate human rights into the peace and security agenda and with the General Assembly’s Fifth Committee to ensure the adequate allocation of resources for human rights 1  ll references to Kosovo should be understood in full A compliance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo. In addition, OHCHR worked with the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) Integrated Operational Team for the Central African Republic to ensure that troops and police being deployed to CAR were adequately assessed in accordance with the UN’s Policy on Human Rights Screening of UN Personnel (HRSP). These entities worked together to develop new operational approaches to ensure the mission readiness of the contingents being deployed to CAR in order to reduce the risks of violations being committed by UN troops on the ground. Furthermore, OHCHR worked with DPO to develop a standard operating procedure to report cases of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in MINUSCA, participated in the SEA crisis group aimed at addressing SEA cases in MINUSCA and facilitated information exchanges between DPO/DFS and OHCHR on SEA cases in MINUSCA and MONUSCO. OHCHR also ensured the integration of human rights into all policies developed by DPO and DPPA, including the policy on conflict-related sexual violence. At the mission level and at headquarters, OHCHR worked in close cooperation with the UN military and police. In an effort to strengthen cooperation between UN police components (UNPOL) and human rights, OHCHR held a two-day workshop on good practices related to the integration of human rights into police components at UNHQ, in December, in New York. Findings from the workshop will be published in a booklet on good practices and lessons learned through cooperation between UNPOL and human rights components. The last version was updated in 2013. In 2018, the Assistant Secretary-General on human rights briefed police commissioners from all peacekeeping and Political Missions, as well as police representatives from more than 100 police-contributing countries. Apart from integrating human rights into the Concept of Operations of the Force for missions, OHCHR’s engagement with the Office of Military Affairs was primarily focused on the HRSP and the identification of other mitigation measures for selection and deployment undertaken by UN troop- and police-contributing countries. In addition, OHCHR worked closely with the Military Planning Team on issues related to civilian protection. With regard to screening and engagement with the UN police division, OHCHR supported the screening of several senior police officers, and in some cases lower ranking officers, for deployment to various UN peace operations. OHCHR worked closely with the police division to develop the UN Police Commanders Course for rostered candidates and integrated human rights standards and principles into various policy documents of the police division. OHCHR actively supported the development of an operational readiness policy framework for UNPOL. At the field level, OHCHR and UNPOL collaborated on the joint observation of demonstrations, shared information, trained national police and undertook joint contingency planning. In 2018, OHCHR advocated for sustained UN human rights engagement in peace operations undergoing transitions. OHCHR’s early engagement in UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2018 185