A/HRC/7/74 page 6 III. TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND CAPACITY-BUILDING ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMPONENTS OF UNITED NATIONS PEACE MISSIONS 1. Human rights advisers placed in United Nations country teams 10. The Board was briefed about OHCHR assistance to country teams as it plays an increasingly important part of the technical cooperation provided at field level in support of national human rights protection systems. The Board noted that human rights advisers attached to the offices of Resident Coordinators play an important role in advising Resident Coordinators on human rights policy and strategic issues and in facilitating the capacity-building of country teams and national counterparts. The Board learned that in 2006 OHCHR completed a review of the role and functions of human rights advisers, with the aim of increasing their effectiveness, following a similar exercise conducted in 2005 for human rights components of peace missions. In 2006, two human rights advisers were stationed in country teams in Sri Lanka and Pakistan and, based on lessons learned from the review and the consequent standardized terms of reference drawn up for human rights advisers, in 2007 an additional nine human rights advisers have been deployed on either OHCHR contracts (Ecuador, Guyana, the Maldives, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia and the Southern Caucasus) or UNDP contracts (Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan), out of which six are funded through the VFTC. Six additional human rights advisers are expected to be deployed in the near future (Moldova, Papua New Guinea, Niger, the Philippines Russia and the Great Lakes region of Africa). The Board fully supports the use of VFTC for the deployment of human rights advisers and noted the importance of foreseeing sufficient budgets for activities and domestic travel. 11. During its twenty-seventh session, the Board participated in the human rights adviser session of the OHCHR annual consultation with heads of field presences. The agenda of this session included the sharing of practical experiences of various human rights advisers pertaining to the implementation of technical cooperation activities; human rights work in post-disaster situations, the contribution of human rights advisers to national development processes and capacity-building of United Nations staff. The session also dwelt on various practical issues such as the generic terms of reference for human rights advisers, substantive backstopping from OHCHR, Geneva to human rights advisers (i.e. development of tools, etc.), and the potential assistance provided to national human rights institutions by human rights advisers. 12. The Board members emphasized the importance of human rights advisers and noted the need for both financial and substantive support and backstopping, as such advisers operate alone within country teams and are expected to provide advice and assistance on a variety of human rights related issues, including training, human rights programming, capacity-building and technical cooperation. Additional funds for deployment would mean that these officers who are currently working on their own could be assisted by a national legal officer, have a small budget for domestic travel and activities, and be able to strategically encourage the members of country teams to reach out to rights holders and assist duty bearers to fulfil their human rights obligations. It is evident that human rights advisers cannot be experts on all counts; some might be strong on providing training, others on formulation of human rights programmes, etc.