A/HRC/41/25
persons with disabilities) and includes audiovisual materials and links to relevant
bibliography and case law.
43.
OHCHR participates in the Global Focal Point for Police, Justice and Corrections
Areas in the Rule of Law in Post-Conflict and Other Crisis Situations, led by the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations and UNDP with the support of other United
Nations partners. The Global Focal Point conducts joint assessments, formulating countryspecific plans, providing expertise and focusing attention on rule of law priorities in those
countries most in need of assistance, thus playing an important role in prevention of conflict
efforts and in sustaining peace.
44.
OHCHR welcomes the role of the International Bar Association and its Human
Rights Institute and specifically commends the report of May 2018 on the role of the
universal periodic review in advancing children’s rights in juvenile justice. OHCHR
encourages even greater engagement with the United Nations human rights mechanisms by
the Institute and by bar associations worldwide.
G.
Maintaining a safe and enabling environment for civil society
45.
A dynamic, diverse and independent civil society, able to operate freely, is a key
element in securing the protection and promotion of human rights at both the national and
international levels. Civil society actors monitor the human rights situation at national level,
mobilize public support for human rights issues and report on human rights violations.
They make a crucial contribution to the effective functioning of the international human
rights mechanisms. The important role of civil society and the need to maintain a safe and
enabling environment in which it can freely operate, have been highlighted by several
resolutions of the Human Rights Council, which remains attentive to any threat to human
rights defenders or reprisal for any form of cooperation with the United Nations or its
mechanisms.
46.
Strengthening the role of civil society at national, regional and international level is
a strategic priority for OHCHR. Over the past few years, it has elaborated a series of
practical guides aimed at increasing the engagement of civil society actors with
international human rights mechanisms and promoting follow-up to the recommendations
formulated by such mechanisms. OHCHR advocates for the inclusion of civil society in
national mechanisms for reporting and follow-up and their active participation in efforts to
implement human rights recommendations, resulting in greater enjoyment of human rights
by all, especially the most vulnerable. With respect to the universal periodic review, the
partnership with and the engagement, among others, of Amnesty International, Civicus,
Human Rights Watch, International Service for Human Rights, UPR Info and the Universal
Rights Group is greatly valued.
IV. Key elements at the international and regional levels
A.
Strengthening coordination at the United Nations
47.
General Assembly resolution 72/279 on the repositioning of the United Nations
development system, provides the mandate for the Secretary-General to ensure that the
United Nations is fit for purpose in order to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and the success of the Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing the highlevel panel at the thirty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council, the Administrator of
UNDP emphasized the complementarity between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and the universal periodic review and noted that all Member States have
committed to both of them, presenting a unique opportunity for the international
development community to support the full realization of human rights in the countries it
serves. In her address to the Council on 7 March 2019, the Deputy Secretary-General
emphasized that the repositioned Resident Coordinator system would provide national
authorities with a coordinated interface with which to engage in coordinated, transparent,
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