A/HRC/15/17 context of its review of the annual report of the Council. As noted in the report of the Secretary-General on the pattern of conferences for 2010 (A/65/122), the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, in consultation with the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts, is updating the costing methodology for conference services. 8. In its second recommendation, OIOS recommended that the Division of Conference Management, in consultation with the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, should develop a strategy that would include the optimal permanent staffing levels required to provide acceptable standards of service. As a follow-up to the OIOS report in the context of the review of the proposed programme budget for 2010-2011, the Secretariat briefed the Fifth Committee on the issues relating to conference facilities and secretariat support for the Council. The General Assembly subsequently approved redeployment within section 2 of the programme budget for 2010-2011 of six P-2 and six P3 translator positions, $5.5 million of temporary assistance for meetings and $0.5 million for contractual translation, from New York to Geneva, only partially meeting the requirements put forward in its report (A/HRC/9/18) and reiterated in an annex to the report of the Secretary-General on revised estimates resulting from the resolutions and decisions adopted by the Council at its ninth session (A/63/541/Add.1/annex II). The Secretariat continues to maintain that the proposals put forward at that time reflect the actual requirements to adequately support the Council. While the redeployment of resources has been beneficial, including funds for temporary assistance, it does not address fully the permanent staffing needs of the Division of Conference Management. 9. In 2010, the Division of Conference Management has relied extensively on contractual translation arrangements and is requesting redeployment of $300,000 from temporary assistance for meetings for this purpose. However, insufficient quality control capacity coupled with the limited number of documents appropriate for contractual translation (for reasons of confidentiality) makes it unlikely that further expansion of contractual translation could address shortfalls in documentation processing capacity. Gaps in reviser and editorial capacity have also proved troublesome to address, given the limited supply of experienced freelance staff. 10. Given the above-mentioned constraints and the near-continuous meetings schedule of the Council, the universal periodic review process and all related human rights treaty bodies, the use of temporary assistance to address conference servicing requirements is clearly no longer feasible. For these reasons, the Division of Conference Management is requesting a greater permanent capacity to meet the needs of new or expanded mandates, and will propose in its budget submission for the biennium 2012-2013 the replacement of temporary assistance resources with new posts – the only way to ensure availability of the right staff at the right time. 11. The long-standing issue of timely document submission was the focus of the third recommendation. OHCHR, with the Division of Conference Management, was tasked to increase awareness of the implications of non-adherence to General Assembly resolution 47/202, in which the Assembly urged substantive departments of the Secretariat to comply with the rule requiring them to submit pre-session documents at least 10 weeks before the beginning of a session in order to permit their timely processing in all the official languages of the United Nations. 12. While the rate of timely submissions has improved, it still remains below desired targets. One of the factors contributing to the improvement has been the introduction, at the request of OHCHR, of a slotting system for the reports to be submitted to the Council. OHCHR has also taken a number of internal measures aimed at increasing the rate of timely submissions; these include restructuring and strengthening the function of documentation management and processing by placing it under the supervision of the Deputy High 4

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