A/HRC/9/18
page 8
17. The Durban review process, which includes sessions of the Preparatory Committee, an
open-ended intergovernmental working group and five regional conferences, is scheduled to take
place in 2008 and 2009. Although mandated by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/220,
there has been no budgetary provision approved for the required conference services. The report
of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly (see A/C.5/62/21, para. 15) suggests that the
additional requirements represent a charge against the contingency fund and, as such, would
require additional appropriations under the proposed programme budget to be still approved by
the General Assembly. Although this process can be considered a one-time ad hoc requirement,
the resource implications are enormous, and it can be anticipated that similar such ad hoc events
will continue to be added to the United Nations Office at Geneva calendar in the future.
II. INFORMATION SERVICES
A. Press, radio and television requirements
18. The United Nations Information Service provides press, radio, television and photo
coverage of United Nations issues and events in Geneva. This involves preparing press releases
in English and French of all public meetings of the Human Rights Council, including those of its
major subsidiary bodies, producing television news reports and features for distribution to
national and international broadcasters and television news agencies, producing radio news
reports and programmes for dissemination through United Nations Radio New York, and
providing photos for United Nations and media publication.
19. To carry out these duties throughout the year, the Service’s staff is augmented by
temporary collaborators and its permanent production capacity is increased through the rental
of additional equipment as required. Traditionally, sufficient funding was allocated under
relevant budgetary lines to cover human rights meetings, including the six-week session of the
then-Commission on Human Rights.
20. With the advent of the Human Rights Council, there was a major increase in the number of
regularly scheduled meetings requiring coverage. Existing resources are thus insufficient to
recruit temporary English- and French-language press officers; English-, French- and
Spanish-language radio producers; English-language television producers; as well as
cameramen, radio engineers and photographers to service the additional meetings.
21. In keeping with the Organization’s zero-growth budget policy for the 2008-2009 biennium,
the Information Service in Geneva was instructed, along with the Department of Public
Information as a whole, to limit its resource request to the same level as in previous bienniums.
The additional funding required for the various information coverage aspects of the Human
Rights Council, as requested by the Council in its decision 3/104, was included in a separate,
comprehensive report to the General Assembly (A/62/125). However, the General Assembly
approved no additional budgetary allocation to the Department for this purpose.
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