A/HRC/35/20 I. Introduction and methodology 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 33/28, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a report on progress and the challenges encountered in the main activities aimed at enhancing technical cooperation and capacity-building undertaken since the establishment of the Human Rights Council. 2. The present report contains a selection of practices, developed in the context of OHCHR technical cooperation programmes, implemented by OHCHR or in cooperation with other United Nations and regional entities in support of State efforts to promote and protect human rights. This selection is intended to illustrate achievements, progress and challenges encountered through the development and implementation of such programmes. 3. In the preparation of the report, information on different experiences, including methodologies used and lessons learned, was gathered from OHCHR headquarters and field presences, regional and country offices, human rights components of United Nations peacekeeping missions and human rights advisers to United Nations country teams, working closely with host governments. OHCHR also solicited direct contributions from all States for the preparation of the present report. The following States provided muchappreciated input: Germany, Kuwait, Qatar, Serbia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 4. Since the establishment of the Human Rights Council, the role and advice of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights and the Voluntary Trust Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance for the Implementation of the Universal Periodic Review have acquired greater and greater importance through the Board’s annual presentations to the sessions of the Human Rights Council as well as its participation in the panel discussions on technical cooperation. The Board of Trustees has been gathering information on the situation on the ground, the relevance of the programmes requested and proposed, and the efficiency and effectiveness of programme delivery in meetings and discussions that it holds with OHCHR management and staff, government officials and State institutions, civil society organizations and specific groups that benefit from the programmes offered by OHCHR. The information obtained is invaluable for understanding the impact and sustainability of results achieved through technical cooperation. For this reason, the present report also builds on the views and advice provided by the Board of Trustees at the Human Rights Council sessions since the adoption of Council resolution 18/18. 5. Another key contribution from the Board of Trustees over the last five years, as noted at the Human Rights Council, has been the unpacking of key components of good cooperation programmes, which the Board of Trustees has been elaborating in its reports to the Human Rights Council.1 During the discussions under the technical cooperation agenda item, States have expressed appreciation for the components mentioned. For this reason, and in order to facilitate compilation of the experiences and results in the present report, OHCHR has used, as a basis for each of the sections of the present report, the various components spelled out by the Board of Trustees in its reports. 1 2 See, for example, A/HRC/26/51, para. 27.