A/HRC/16/66 I. Introduction 1. The Secretary-General submits to the Commission on Human Rights and, subsequently to the Human Rights Council, an annual report on technical cooperation in the field of human rights, reflecting the discussions of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights. The Council, in its decision 2/102, requested the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue with the fulfilment of their activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, and to update the relevant reports and studies. The present report is therefore submitted as an update of the previous report,1 and focuses on the work of the Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund in 2010. 2. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had previously interpreted decision 2/102 as extending previous Commission of Human Rights reports and providing for an annual reporting cycle. This interpretation had not received any objections to date, and the Office's interpretation was thus deemed to have received the tacit approval of Member States. However, an objection was placed on the record in 2010, albeit in the context of another report which also used Decision 2/102 as the basis for its annual reporting. OHCHR has thus further reviewed the said Decision, and concludes that with it, the Human Rights Council sought to fill a technical gap by ensuring that the deadlines for reports which were to be submitted to the 62nd session of the Human Rights Commission would be extended by one year, for submission to the subsequent substantive Human Rights Council session. With this transition period over, and the objection now on the record to the previous interpretation of annual reporting cycles, if the Human Rights Council wishes to see a continuation of this reporting mandate, a new Human Rights Council Resolution or Decision on the matter should be tabled. II. Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights 3. The members of the Board of Trustees are appointed by the Secretary-General to advise OHCHR on streamlining and rationalizing the working methods and procedures of its technical cooperation programme. Its current members are William Schabas (Canada and Ireland), Chairperson; Mónica Pinto (Argentina); Sozar Subari (Georgia), Fatima Mbaye (Mauritania); and Deepika Udagama (Sri Lanka). The second terms of office of Mr. Schabas and Ms. Pinto will end in December 2011, while Ms. Udagama’s term of office has been extended by the Secretary-General for a second term, as from December 2010. 4. The work of the Board has evolved in its approach in recent years, from detailed revision of individual projects to advising OHCHR on policy orientation and providing global vision and strategy on technical cooperation at a broader programme level. The new direction in the role played by the Board has been appreciated by the Office, which has greatly benefited from the experience and wisdom of the Board members, particularly following the recent reforms within the United Nations and OHCHR, including strengthened engagement at the country level and strategic planning. 5. The Board holds its meetings twice a year in Geneva. Its thirty-second session was planned to coincide with the annual consultations of the OHCHR heads of field presences 1 A/HRC/13/61 3