A/HRC/19/21 I. Introduction 1. The period under review was an extraordinary year for human rights. Global financial and economic, climate, energy and food crises, famine in the Horn of Africa, armed conflict in Africa and the Middle East, resurgent racism and xenophobia and lingering poverty continued to challenge the international human rights movement. In the midst of failures of governance around the world in dealing with these challenges, civil society became mobilized, first in Tunisia, then across the Arab region, and ultimately in cities across the globe. My Office responded to these events with the full range of tools and resources available to us, as did the Human Rights Council, the special procedures and the treaty bodies that we support. Our mission in advancing freedom from fear and want has never been more relevant nor strained. 2. In 2011, I established a country office in Tunisia and human rights staff have been integrated into the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. As at December 2011, OHCHR had 58 field presences: 13 country/stand-alone offices, 15 human rights components of peace missions, 12 regional offices and 18 human rights advisers within United Nations country teams. These human rights presences are critical for providing national counterparts with direct and targeted assistance in addressing human rights issues. 3. I conducted missions, in chronological order, to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, the Russian Federation, Germany, Guinea, Senegal, the United Republic of Tanzania, Mauritania, Norway, Australia, Mexico, Tunisia, the Republic of Moldova, France, Maldives and Indonesia. The Deputy High Commissioner visited Nepal, the Sudan, Haiti, Lithuania, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, the United States of America, Ireland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Poland, Qatar and Mali. The Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights visited Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Afghanistan, Iraq, Spain, Turkey and Canada. 4. The sharp increase in the tasks requested of my Office, including those arising from new, often unfunded mandates, the steadily expanding system of human rights treaty bodies, commissions of inquiry and requests from Member States for assistance have tested the limits of our resources. I am grateful to my staff for their hard work and professional dedication, and appeal to Member States to provide us with adequate resources to enable us to undertake effectively our ever-expanding work. II. Thematic priorities A. 1. (a) Strengthening human rights mechanisms and the progressive development of international human rights law Strengthening human rights mechanisms Human Rights Council 5. The Human Rights Council responded to many human rights crises in 2011. It held four special sessions on the human rights situation in Libya and the Syrian Arab Republic. With the support of OHCHR, it established commissions of inquiry on Côte d’Ivoire, Libya and the Syrian Arab Republic to investigate violations of international law and to recommend actions. 6. Following the sixteenth special session, I set up a fact-finding mission on the Syrian Arab Republic, as requested by the Human Rights Council in its resolution S-16/1. The 3