A/HRC/29/48 I. Introduction A. Background 1. The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights, established by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1987/83, receives voluntary contributions from Governments, organizations and individuals. The objective of the Fund is to provide financial support for international cooperation aimed at building up and strengthening national and regional institutions and infrastructures that will have long-term impact on improved implementation of international human rights standards. 2. The Board of Trustees has been operational since 1993 and its members are appointed by the Secretary-General for a three-year renewable term. The mandate of the Board is to assist the Secretary-General in streamlining and rationalizing the working methods and procedures of the technical cooperation programme. It meets twice a year and reports on its work to the Secretary-General and the Human Rights Council. Current members are Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi (Mexico), Christopher Sidoti (Australia), Lin Lim (Malaysia), Valeriu Nicolae (Romania) and Esi Sutherland-Addy (Ghana). Mr. Nicolae and Ms. Sutherland-Addy were appointed to the Board in January 2015, replacing Sozar Subari (Georgia) and Fatimata Mbaye (Mauritania) respectively, who ended their terms on 31 December 2014. The Board elected Ms. Acosta as chairperson from 30 June 2014 until 30 June 2015, when she will be replaced by Lin Lim, who was elected chairperson by the Board at its forty-first session, in Phnom Penh and in Bangkok. B. Mandate 3. Throughout the period under review, the Board of Trustees continued to engage actively with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including its field presences, providing advice on policy orientation and strategic vision on technical cooperation components of all its programmes. This refocused approach, which is framed within the broad definition of technical cooperation, was agreed upon by the Board of Trustees and presented to Member States in the annual report of the Secretary-General submitted to the Human Rights Council in 2011.1 4. The members of the Board are also the constituent members of the Board of Trustees for the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance in the Implementation of the Universal Periodic Review. In that capacity, they continued to provide OHCHR with policy guidance in order to maximize the effectiveness of technical assistance and financial support for States in implementing recommendations of the universal periodic review and other international mechanisms at the State level (see A/HRC/29/22). 5. The Board sessions, held both in Geneva and in countries where OHCHR has a presence, have been particularly useful in increasing the understanding of the synergies and the mutual reinforcing aspects of the support provided by OHCHR through the two funds. These aspects, together with the discussion on the financial and administrative elements governing the two funds, help the Board members to continue to refine the various aspects of their dual and separate mandates in order to achieve their aims more effectively and to 1 A/HRC/16/66. 3