A/HRC/24/27 21. In April 2013, OHCHR, with support from the Center of Concern, organized an expert meeting in New York entitled “Rights in Crisis”. Participants from delegations, United Nations system organizations, development and economic institutions and academia, civil society organizations and NGOs discussed rights-based approaches to economic stabilization, recovery and growth.6 The objectives of the meeting were to: (a) promote accountability by clarifying the interrelationship between the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to development, and State policies related to issues such as macroeconomic crises and responses, government expenditures, financial sector development and regulatory frameworks; (b) examine the obstacles that the financial crisis and prevailing financial structures pose to the full enjoyment of all human rights including non-retrogression and the fulfilment of minimum core obligations with regards to economic, social and cultural rights; (c) solicit expert opinions on the causes of the global financial crisis and its impacts, particularly on women and marginalized groups; and (d) explore specific applications of a human rights framework to financial crisis prevention, response and recovery in order to develop guidelines for the mainstreaming of human rights. 22. During the reporting period, OHCHR country offices provided substantive and technical assistance support to requesting Member States. For instance, in Uganda, OHCHR provided training and capacity-building support to the Uganda Human Rights Commission, civil society organizations and district authorities, including in such areas as monitoring and advocacy on economic, social and cultural rights, strengthening accountability and human rights awareness, and integration of a human rights-based approach in planning and budgeting. As a result, key human rights concerns have been reflected in several district plans and the participation of civil society in planning processes was strengthened. In addition, the Office provided comments to the National Planning Authority on the Vision 2040 launched by the President of Uganda in April 2013. 23. OHCHR participated in a side event to the fourteenth session of the Working Group on the Right to Development, organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, entitled “Towards a Framework Convention on the Right to Development”. At the side event, a publication of Koen De Feyter with the same title was launched.7 Mr. De Feyter presented the idea of elaborating a framework convention as the best option for accommodating the concerns of the different political groups. The potential added value of a framework convention on the right to development was to complement the current human rights regime with a treaty that went beyond individual States’ responsibility and took inspiration from principles derived from international development efforts, such as mutual accountability, alignment of policies among partner countries, and inclusive partnerships. The representative of OHCHR underlined the importance of human rights instruments to protection and the need to ensure that resources and support to those instruments was adequate. III. Activities by United Nations human rights mechanisms 24. In July 2012, the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order sent four different questionnaires to Member States, intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society 6 7 8 See OHCHR webpage “Human rights and the financial crisis”. Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/PromotingHRbasedfinancialregulation macroeconomicpolicies.aspx. De Feyter, Towards a Framework Convention on the Right to Development (Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, Geneva, 2013).