A/HRC/23/31 Human Rights Officers providing technical advice and assistance across the country. This progress has been reversed in the past year because of drastic budget cuts under the national austerity measures: all State offices have been closed, and all 92 staff members of the Commission are currently located in Juba. 62. The above situation has been compounded by the fact that the Commission lacks any funds for implementing its operational activities, even in the capital. As a result, it has not been able to conduct investigations into gross human rights violations, issue public reports or receive and process individual complaints for many months. The limited number of activities that the Commission has been able to conduct, including investigations or capacity-building, has been implemented with the financial, technical and organizational support of the Human Rights Division of UNMISS through OHCHR, and of other United Nations agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 63. Such support enabled the Commission to issue its annual report for 2011 in 2012 (still pending approval by Parliament) and its second Strategic Plan for 2012-2015, which is being implemented with the technical support of OHCHR and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes. The Commission was also able to develop its complaints and investigations procedure and its public investigation procedure with technical support from OHCHR. 64. A dynamic, robust and independent national human rights body is essential to work with government institutions in developing and implementing policies, practices and legislation that are in compliance with human rights norms and to advocate on behalf of individual victims of human rights violations. The Commission should also play a key role in supporting the development of an implementation plan for the human rights agenda, as well as ensuring that the Human Rights Forum, which it co-chairs, plays an important role in fostering dialogue among the various stakeholders. International support in terms of both funding and expertise will be essential to rebuild the Commission and to help it to become a leading voice in the protection and promotion of human rights in South Sudan. 65. In her previous report, the High Commissioner stressed that an institutional development grant, with clear benchmarks and implemented in an incremental and phased manner, could improve the capacity of the Commission. She added that the grant would gradually promote the emergence of an independent commission by linking disbursement to transparent appointments, security of tenure of commissioners and the issuance of public reports on key human rights issues.3 F. National human rights agenda 66. In November 2012, the Council of Ministers adopted a national human rights agenda, which sets out a plan of action based on five core priorities: the establishment of an effective legal framework for the promotion and protection of human rights; education, training and public awareness on human rights; strengthening implementation mechanisms, including measures to ensure that government policies, programmes and administrative practices are rights-based; strengthening monitoring, investigative and protective mechanisms, namely the Human Rights Commission, Parliament and civil society; and conflict resolution and management. 67. Although the agenda has yet to be tabled before Parliament, it could provide a useful framework for the development of an integrated national and State-level plan for 3 Ibid., para. 60. 13