A/HRC/25/25 I. Introduction A. Submission of the report 1. The present note was prepared in accordance with General Assembly resolution 68/156, and complements the report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Fund which was submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session (A/68/282). This note presents updated information on the activities of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (the Fund), notably the recommendations adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Fund at its thirty-eighth session which was held in Geneva from 30 September to 4 October 2013. Information on the recommendations adopted by the Board of Trustees at its thirty-seventh session, held in Geneva from 4 to 8 March 2013, can be found in the above-mentioned report to the General Assembly. B. Mandate of the Fund 2. The Fund receives voluntary contributions from Governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals. In accordance with the mandate of the Fund outlined in General Assembly resolution 36/151, and the practices established by the Board of Trustees since 1982, the Fund provides grants to established channels of assistance, including nongovernmental organizations, associations of victims and of family members of victims, private and public hospitals, legal clinics, and public-interest law firms and individual lawyers that submit projects involving medical, psychological, social, financial, legal and humanitarian or other forms of assistance to victims of torture and members of their families. C. Administration of the Fund and composition of the Board of Trustees 3. The Secretary-General administers the Fund through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with the advice of the Board of Trustees, which is composed of five members who act in a personal capacity and are appointed by the Secretary-General giving due regard to the principle of equitable geographical distribution and in consultation with their Governments. On 26 October 2011, the Secretary-General reappointed Mercedes Doretti (Argentina) for a final term of three years, and appointed Maria Cristina de Mendonça (Portugal), Morad el-Shazly (Egypt) and Anastasia Pinto (India) for a three-year term, renewable once. On 28 October 2013, the Secretary-General appointed Adam Bodnar (Poland) to replace Natasa Kandic, following the latter’s resignation. 4. Pursuant to recommendations formulated by the Office of Internal Oversight Services in its 2007 audit report on the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, as from 1 January 2012 the secretariats of the Fund and of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery were placed within the Human Rights Treaties Division of OHCHR (Capacity-building and Harmonization Section). On 1 April 2013, the secretariat of the Special Fund established by the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was placed in the same section. 2