A/HRC/27/18 13. Despite the confirmation made by the General Assembly that the system of geographical ranges to be applied to the Secretariat is based on individual countries rather than regions, the Human Rights Council has repeatedly requested that statistics on a regional basis be provided. The table below complies with that request, showing the distribution of OHCHR staff by regional group. It shows a slight change in the percentages from the various regions compared with 2012, although the overall trend since 2006 is quite clear. This can be explained by the mobile and dynamic nature of OHCHR staff members and thus the changes from year to year. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by region (Percentages at 31 December 2013) Region 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Africa 11.1 13.1 13.9 13.8 14.5 16.0 16.7 15.8 Asia 11.9 12.6 13.3 13.6 15.8 16.7 15.7 14.0 Latin America and Caribbean 9.6 11.9 11.5 13.2 13.7 12.5 13.3 13.0 Eastern Europe 3.3 4.8 5.0 5.7 6.9 7.5 7.0 8.2 64.1 57.5 56.3 53.7 49.1 47.3 47.3 49.0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Western Europe and others Total III. Efforts made to achieve equitable geographical representation and gender balance 14. Enhancing the geographical diversity of OHCHR staff remains one of the High Commissioner’s priorities. In accordance with that objective, OHCHR has continued to vigorously implement the High Commissioner’s procedures and framework for improving geographical diversity, in full compliance with Secretariat human resources policies, which were explained in detail to the Commission on Human Rights in February 2006.4 Current measures have included expanding the pool of qualified candidates from the widest possible range of countries and backgrounds, and developing recruitment outreach activities with United Nations country teams, OHCHR field offices, permanent missions in Geneva, other United Nations entities and local partners in the field. The 2010 National Competitive Recruitment Examination, which included the human rights occupational group, yielded another group of candidates from unrepresented and underrepresented Member States from which OHCHR was able to recruit. OHCHR has also requested the Office of Human 3 4 4 Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam and Yemen. Overrepresented at 31 December 2013: Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Philippines, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uruguay. E/CN.4/2006/103.