A/HRC/13/61 emanating from the UPR should remain complementary to the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation. 39. The Board noted that, with limited funds, there was need for an articulated follow-up and standard approach on the UPR recommendations. The Board acknowledged the successful acceptance of the UPR process by a large number of countries and welcomed the strategic partnerships with UNDP and other stakeholders in the field. It highlighted the challenges but also the potential of the UPR mechanism, pointing out that the review by the Human Rights Council of the UPR mechanism in 2012 could be an appropriate occasion to analyse and discuss the positive as well as the negative developments in the process in its first cycle. 40. The Board was kept abreast on the Durban Review Conference, its outcome and follow-up. It noted the challenges posed to OHCHR in bringing consensus to assist States and civil society in their endeavour to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, exclusion and related intolerance. The Board noted that OHCHR would continue in the next biennium to service the Durban mechanisms, undertake research aimed at developing a database on racism and intolerance, help States and other stakeholders to develop national action plans as required by the Durban documents and promote strategic partnerships. 41. The Board was updated on the outcome of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related communication strategy. It was informed that this had been the largest media campaign undertaken by OHCHR and had been largely successful in its global outreach to promote the Office’s work. The Board also acknowledged the usefulness of the materials that had been produced for promoting the work of OHCHR to a wide audience and urged the Office to explore the latest technology and media in promoting its work. 42. The Civil Society Unit of OHCHR expressed its gratitude at being given an opportunity to meet with the Board members, who were informed of work by OHCHR to involve the broadest possible cross section of civil society elements in the work of OHCHR and the United Nations human rights system. The Board was updated on the production of Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society, which would be available in all official United Nations and other languages and was to be disseminated broadly. The Board acknowledged the important role played by civil society in promoting human rights and the new opportunities provided by the UPR mechanism for civil society engagement. 43. The Board was briefed on the collaboration that the Millennium Development Goals Unit of OHCHR had developed with the United Nations system as a whole in mainstreaming human rights within the framework of the inter-agency programme. The Board was heartened to learn about the work of the system-wide United Nations Development Group joint task forces and acknowledged that partnerships and cooperation were integral to the advancement and effectiveness in the work of OHCHR. It hoped that the human rights capacity of United Nations country teams would be further expanded and strengthened, including through the follow-up to the Action 2 Global Programme and the “delivering as one” process. This will include providing substantive advice to United Nations country teams, backstopping and deploying human rights advisers, and contributing to the work of relevant inter-agency mechanisms in Geneva and New York. 44. The Board also received an update from the OHCHR Methodology, Education and Training Unit on working with the thematic priorities of the OHCHR headquarters and regional offices to provide training, human rights assessment tools, guidance on human rights monitoring and investigations, and advice to Governments on national development action plans. The Board was also interested to hear about the new area of work on knowledge management for the Organization in improving its effectiveness. 10 GE.10-10528

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents