A/HRC/26/51
Office, in particular the Special Fund established by the Optional Protocol to the
Convention against Torture aimed at supporting financially implementation of
recommendations by the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture.
15.
The Board also met with the Deputy High Commissioner and briefed her on its latest
visits to field presences and the role that the Board envisages vis-a-vis its new capacity as
Board of Trustees for the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance in the
Implementation of the Universal Periodic Review.
B.
Thirty-ninth session
16.
The thirty-seventh session of the Board of Trustees was held in Mexico from 17 to
21 February 2014, pursuant to the Board’s practice of holding one of its two meetings each
year in countries where OHCHR has a field presence funded by the Voluntary Fund for
Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights. This was the third time that a session
of the Board was organized outside Geneva.
17.
In 2014, the Board has been keen to visit, for the first time, an OHCHR presence in
Latin America, to witness first-hand the commonalities and differences in approach and to
learn from the experience of the Office in the Americas. The Office in Mexico is fully
funded by the Voluntary Fund. The main purpose of the visit, as in the case of previous
sessions and visits to the field, was to continue to gather in situ observations of value-added
areas and areas requiring strengthening for the Office as a whole in the design and
implementation of its technical cooperation programmes.
18.
The Board discussed technical cooperation activities by the OHCHR presence in
Mexico during meetings with different national and State-level authorities, United Nations
partners, the national human rights commission and civil society organizations in the
country. This included visits to selected projects at the State level in Coahuila (Saltillo) and
in Nuevo Leon (Monterrey) , where the Board received briefings on the specific situation of
human rights to be addressed by the technical advice and services provided by OHCHR, in
particular with State authorities, the judiciary and civil society organizations.
19.
During the visit, the Board discussed the support provided in various areas,
including technical and advisory services on the follow-up to recommendations from all
human rights mechanisms and on the establishment of the Mechanism of Protection for
Journalists and Human Rights Defenders with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Ministry of the Interior. Particular focus was attached to the development of a human rights
plan of action at the national level that could serve as an overarching tool to continue to
guide efforts to develop the plans and strengthen existing ones when needed at the State
level. The Board was able to understand the process of development of the plan of action
for Nuevo Leon during its visit to Coahuila. With regard to institution-building efforts in
the context of the Mechanism of Protection for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders,
the Board was of the view that efforts should be constantly reassessed to ensure that the
existence of the Mechanism was part of broader efforts to eradicate violence and human
rights abuses and violations against human rights defenders and journalists and to address
these issues effectively with a methodology that provides the expertise, practicality and
continuity required for this aim.
20.
The Board had an opportunity to discuss with Congress representatives the support
from the Office on legislative developments regarding the landmark constitutional reform
of 2011, which granted constitutional status to international human rights treaties, military
jurisdiction, enforced disappearances, freedom of expression, and the withdrawing of
reservations to main human rights instruments, among others. The Board also learned
during the meeting with the President of the Supreme Court about the support given by the
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