A/HRC/43/37
defenders, United Nations country teams and OHCHR presences in the field. The
outcome of these analyses should then be sent by the High Commissioner to the
President of the Council or presented during the regular sessions of the Council. The
opportunity for the High Commissioner to brief the Council could be enhanced by
giving her a mandate to report at each session of the Council on early warning
situations. Such reporting could be done in the form of a regional horizon scanning,
focusing on risk factors and emerging crises.
64.
While the Council is privy to early warning information, there has been
relatively little discussion about developing its early action capacity. The type of early
action to be taken should be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the specific
country or regional context. One option could be a confidential meeting with the
country concerned and/or, should the latter accept it, a good offices mission to
conduct quiet diplomacy. 17 The composition of the good offices mission should be
decided on a case-by-case basis and could include the President and members of the
Council, special procedure mandate holders, OHCHR and representatives of
regional/subregional organizations.
65.
In the event of a deterioration in the situation after a quiet diplomacy mission,
the options currently available for action by the Council include a presidential
statement (requiring the agreement of all member States), a request to OHCHR to
prepare a report, a call for a special session, or the creation of an investigative body.
These last two options have only been implemented in the past after a situation had
deteriorated significantly. An additional option would be to address the situation of
concern by referring stakeholders to the human rights implementation facility
detailed above.
D.
Need for upstream prevention through sustaining peace and
implementing the Sustainable Development Goals
66.
The consultations showed that the Council could enhance its preventive impact
through more systematic synergies with efforts to sustain peace and implement the
Sustainable Development Goals. Both these approaches embody upstream prevention
through a strengthening of institutions that can safeguard human rights, address the
root causes of human rights violations, such as social exclusion and the violation of
social and economic rights, and foster reconciliation to prevent the recurrence of
conflicts that can undermine human rights gains. Therefore, the Council and its
mechanisms should systematically seek to tailor the results of their work towards
sustaining peace and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and feed it
into the work of peace and development actors elsewhere in the United Nations.
67.
Moreover, the sustaining peace and Sustainable Development Goals agendas
constitute bridges between the United Nations human rights and the peace and
security pillars, on the one hand, and the human rights and the development pillars,
on the other. During consultations, a series of measures or initiatives were identified
that could help ensure a closer working relationship between the Council and the two
other pillars of the United Nations. Regarding the linkage with the peace and security
pillar, it is critical that the Council continue to seek a closer working relationship with
the Security Council, including through more systematic invitations to Human Rights
Council mechanisms to participate in the deliberations of the Security Council. The
Human Rights Council should systematize and strengthen its working relationship
with the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide and
the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict
and for Children and Armed Conflict by inviting them more regularly to its sessions
and/or requesting them, through specific resolutions, to report to it on their areas of
work and activities or conduct joint activities, including joint reporting, with its
17
In 1988, the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights conducted, along with five members of
the Commission appointed following regional consultations, a mission to Cuba at the invitation of the
Government in order to observe the human rights situation (Report E/CN.4/1989/46 of 21 February
1989 and Corr.1).
15
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