A/HRC/22/17 I. Introduction 1. The past year has been characterized by daunting crises, particularly in the Syrian Arab Republic, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Mali and the Sahel region. These have resulted in thousands of deaths, massive displacement and grave violations, marked by a climate of impunity. Twenty years after the haunting memories of Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the international community remains helpless to prevent and end such situations. The economic crisis is relentless, increasing poverty, often aggravated by stringent austerity measures, particularly in Europe and North America. 2. At the same time, the human rights system faces significant budget constraints and an ever-growing workload, particularly in the form of unfunded new mandates from the Human Rights Council. I pay tribute to my staff for their professionalism and dedication in carrying the extra work and appeal to States to provide resources commensurate with the high expectations placed on the system. 3. In December, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was running and supporting 57 human rights field presences: 12 country and stand-alone offices; 13 regional offices, 15 human rights components of peace missions; and 17 human rights advisers within United Nations country teams. In September 2012, I signed an agreement with the Government of Yemen for the establishment of a country office in Yemen. In addition, the OHCHR Regional Office for North Africa was temporarily established in Tunisia. The OHCHR Office in Nepal has closed, following the Government’s decision not to extend its mandate. 4. Country visits are critical to engage directly in and strengthen dialogue with national counterparts. In 2012, I undertook missions to (in chronological order) Guatemala, Barbados, Sweden, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Pakistan, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Algeria, the Netherlands and Indonesia. the Deputy High Commissioner visited Chad, the Niger, Tunisia, Lebanon, Malawi, Mongolia, Morocco and Jordan. The Assistant Secretary-General visited Ethiopia (to attend the Africa Union Summit), Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia. He also accompanied the Secretary-General on missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. II. Thematic priorities A. 1. Discrimination Racial discrimination 5. The current year has unfortunately seen a perpetuation of racial discrimination, including racist hate speech. OHCHR and human rights mechanisms have taken steps to combat this. In 2012, one of the main pillars of the anti-discrimination work of OHCHR was the provision of advice to Member States on the formulation of policies and programmes, including national plans of action to eradicate racism and promote equality. OHCHR provided support to Benin, Bolivia (Multinational State of), Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mauritania, Nigeria and Panama. It also worked on the creation of a database on practical means to combat racism. 6. Following the series of expert workshops in 2011 on the prohibition of incitement to national, racial or religious hatred, OHCHR organized a final expert meeting in Morocco in 3