FUNDING This chapter presents an overview of UN Human Rights funding in 2019 and of funding trends since 2010. In 2019, the second year of the OMP 20182021, UN Human Rights’ total income was US$284.6 million. Of this total, 62.9 per cent came from voluntary contributions and 37.1 per cent came from the United Nations regular budget. In 2019, the approved regular budget appropriation for UN Human Rights, as a department of the United Nations Secretariat, was US$105.6 million, which is just under 3.7 per cent of the total UN regular budget. More specifically, excluding funds it apportions to the human rights components of peacekeeping operations, out of 51.7 per cent of the total regular budget resources directed to the three UN system pillars, the UN regular budget allocates 7.7 per cent to the human rights pillar; the other two pillars being development and peace and security. As a matter of principle, the UN regular budget should finance all activities that are mandated by the General Assembly and its subsidiary organs, including by the Human Rights Council. The regular budget allocation, however, does not currently keep pace with the ongoing growth in the number and scope of the General Assembly human rights mandates. In addition, during 2019, the Human Rights Council adopted 65 resolutions with programme budget implications. These new mandates were presented to the General Assembly at the end of the year in the summary of all resolutions adopted by the Council. While most of the resources required for new mandates were approved, their late-in-the-year presentation to the General Assembly meant that UN Human Rights had to draw from its voluntary resources to fund new activities with a more immediate timeline. Furthermore, due to cash flow issues, regular budget allotments in 2019 were issued on a quarterly basis and the actual amount received capped at 75 per cent of that expected for activities. Therefore, in 2019, to cover the funding gap caused by the combined effect of the regular budget cuts, delays in payments and cash flow issues, UN Human Rights had to rely on voluntary contributions to finance approximately 23 per cent of its officially mandated activities that should be financed by the regular budget. OHCHR - FUNDING OVERVIEW Voluntary contributions Regular budget appropriation 350 300 250 million US$ Continuous improvements in the level, flexibility, timeliness and predictability of voluntary contributions and the diversification of the donor base are essential to ensuring that UN Human Rights has the resources it needs to achieve the goals set out in the OHCHR Management Plan (OMP) 2018-2021. UN Human Rights is partially funded through assessed contributions from Member States to the United Nations regular budget and partially through voluntary contributions (extrabudgetary funding) from donors, the majority of whom are Member States. 200 150 100 50 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2019 87