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19. The launch of the new OHCHR website coincided with the launch of a year-long advocacy
campaign to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. With the implementation of the new website, the average number of pages viewed every
day has reached 80,000.
20. The use of the new CMS will also facilitate the design of new web pages in accordance
with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations regarding access by disabled
people, and the design of a template to be used by field offices to develop their own local
websites which will still have the “look-and-feel” of the main site and whose content can also be
in the local language.
C. Media liaison
21. The Office has continued to strengthen its capacity to communicate the human rights
message through the media. OHCHR staff responsible for media liaison brief the international
press regularly on the activities of the Office and on the human rights programme in general. The
media liaison staff participate in elaborating the communication strategy of OHCHR; accompany
the High Commissioner in her field visits; draft press statements and background notes; organize
media events for the High Commissioner; assist the special procedures mechanisms and the
treaty bodies with their media liaison needs; and help draft and place opinion pieces and other
articles in major international publications.
22. The Communication Section assisted in the placement of nine opinion articles by the
High Commissioner. Thematic information kits were developed and distributed for use of the
media and partners on the human rights issues of Indigenous Peoples (in English) and UDHR 60
(in all official languages). In the reporting period the Unit worked with the United Nations
Information Service (UNIS), Geneva and the Treaties and Council Branch of OHCHR on
two seminars to train journalists from around the world on the work of the Office in the
promotion and protection of human rights.
D. Public outreach programmes
1. Briefings
23. The Communications Section regularly organizes briefings for students, diplomats,
journalists, public officials, academics, professors and NGOs. It also provides speakers for
human rights briefings organized by UNIS Geneva. Seventy-seven briefings were delivered by
OHCHR staff to more than 1,900 participants in 2007 on a variety of issues and in different
languages. A general OHCHR PowerPoint presentation was developed as an introduction to be
used by speakers in briefings.
24. In 2007, the Communications Section also coordinated and organized the Human Rights
programme section of the forty-fifth Graduate Study Programme, organized annually by
UNIS Geneva.
2. Public information materials
25. In the course of 2007, the Communications Section produced a series of public
information materials such as electronic and print brochures distributed to partners, including
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