FUNDING UN Human Rights Humanitarian Funds UN Human Rights provides joint secretariat support to two grant-making funds, namely, the Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and the Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Together, they are known as the UN Human Rights Humanitarian Funds. They were established by the General Assembly with the purpose of providing direct assistance and rehabilitation to individuals whose rights have been violated in the context of torture and contemporary forms of slavery, respectively. This assistance translates into yearly grants that are awarded to mainly civil society organizations that provide humanitarian, medical, psychological, social and legal aid to victims. They are financed through voluntary contributions and are formally administered FUNDING by the Secretary-General, who acts on the advice of Boards of Trustees. The Boards distribute the grants in accordance with the mandates of the UN Human Rights Humanitarian Funds. In 2018, 30 Member States and a handful of private donors made contributions to the two Funds for a total of US$10.1 million. UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTARY FUND FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, established by General Assembly resolution 36/151, in 1981, provides direct assistance to torture victims and their families. Each year, the Fund awards grants to civil society organizations for medical, psychological, legal and social services to victims and their families. The Fund is managed with the advice of a Board of Trustees composed of independent experts from the five world regions. In 2018, the Board members were: Ms. Gaby Ore Aguilar (Peru), Mr. Mikolaj Pietrzak (Poland), Ms. Sara Hossein (Bangladesh), Ms. Vivienne Nathanson (United Kingdom) and Mr. Lawrence Mute (Kenya). In 2018, the Fund awarded 163 grants to projects in 78 countries for a total of US$7,121,000 (with an average grant size of US$43,500). This amounts to nearly 40,000 victims assisted by the Fund. In addition, seven grants were provided to organizations to support their capacity-building activities. Through its emergency grants procedure, in 2018, the Fund provided seven grants for a total of US$447,000 to assist victims of torture, including four grants in support of Rohingya refugees. SEEKING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE IN LIBERIA “The UN Fund for Torture Victims trusted us when nobody else did. They have been with us from the beginning and gave us the support we needed to start our activities. The money they gave us six years ago has helped to hold accountable suspected war criminals from Liberia across Europe and in the United States. That is what the Torture Fund has done for us,” Mr. Hassan Bility, Director of the Global Justice and Research Project and former prisoner during the Charles Taylor administration. In 2012, he founded the Global Justice and Research Project that seeks accountability for war-related crimes in Liberia. For the past five years, the UN Torture Fund has provided support to Civitas Maxima and its implementing partner, the Global Justice and Research Project, in Monrovia, Liberia. The project entitled Hassan Bility, Director of the Global Justice and Research Project of Liberia, was one of the keynote speakers at an expert workshop convened by the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. © OHCHR 108 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2018 Accountability for Victims of Torture in Liberia, provides legal assistance to 80 torture victims, including detainees, victims of sexual violence in armed conflict, children, and political dissidents from the Liberian civil war. In 2018, the organization used universal jurisdiction to file a complaint in a domestic court in the United States (Philadelphia) against Thomas Jucontee Woewiyu, the former Defence Minister for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia. The organization presented over 30 testimonies from victims who had been subjected to torture by him. He is due to be sentenced in 2019. UN VOLUNTARY FUND FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS IN 2018 Donor US$ Andorra 23,844 Argentina 15,000 Austria 23,310 Canada 47,133 Chile 5,000 Czech Republic 8,764 Denmark 791,390 France 58,072 Germany 861,208 Holy See 2,000 India 25,000 Ireland 96,701 Italy 5,787 Kuwait 10,000 Liechtenstein 25,304 Luxembourg 17,045 Mexico 10,000 Netherlands 113,636 Norway 357,270 Pakistan 3,000 Portugal 29,583 Qatar 28,347 Saudi Arabia 70,000 Switzerland 200,803 United Kingdom 34,722 United States of America 6,550,000 Individual donors 664 TOTAL 9,413,584 UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTARY TRUST FUND ON CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF SLAVERY The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, established by General Assembly resolution 46/122 in 1991, grants financial support to civil society organizations that provide medical, psychological, legal, social services and humanitarian assistance to victims of contemporary forms of slavery. Modern forms of slavery are brought to light on a regular basis, including serfdom, forced labour, bonded labour, trafficking in persons and in human organs, sexual slavery, the worst forms of child labour, early and forced marriage, inherited widows, the sale of wives and other forms of slavery. The Trust Fund acts on the advice of a five-member Board of Trustees. The Board meets annually to determine priorities and policies, review working methods and adopt recommendations on new grants. In 2018, the Board members were: Ms. Nevena Vučković Šahović (Serbia), Ms. Renu Rajbhandari (Nepal), Mr. Leonardo Sakamoto (Brazil), Ms. Georgina Vaz Cabral (France) and Mr. Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa (Malawi). In 2018, the Fund awarded 29 grants to projects in 27 countries for a total of US$503,500 (with an average grant size of US$17,000). The Trust Fund assists approximately 10,000 victims of slavery every year, including victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, the exploitation and sale of children, forced and bonded labour, slavery in supply chains, early and forced marriage, sexual slavery, domestic servitude and traditional slavery. The Trust Fund prioritized projects providing specialized direct assistance to victims, in particular women and children, UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2018 109