Central Africa (Yaounde, Cameroon)
East Africa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Southern Africa (Pretoria, South Africa)
West Africa

The UN Subregional Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa was established in 2001 pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 54/55 A of 1 December 1999, at the request of Member States of the Economic Community of Central African States to strengthen security, stability and development in Central Africa by promoting respect for human rights and democracy. The Centre covers Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe. Covering the four countries where OHCHR does not have a presence (the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe) has proved to be one of the Centre’s greatest challenges.
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The East Africa Regional Office covers countries in the East and Horn of Africa, and focuses primarily on Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Tanzania since there is no OHCHR presence in those countries. In partnership with UN Country Teams in the region, the Office facilitates information-sharing, capacitybuilding initiatives and actions to promote, monitor and uphold human rights in the region. The Office emphasizes mainstreaming human rights in the work of regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations based in Addis Ababa, such as the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and in UN Country Teams and UN offices in the region.
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The Regional Office for Southern Africa was the first regional presence established by OHCHR. It was set up in 1998 in response to demand for human rights advice, guidance and assistance from the UN Country Teams in Southern Africa at a time when countries in the region were undergoing a transition to democracy. Now, almost ten years later, the need for human rights advice, guidance and assistance has not diminished.
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West Africa is currently the most volatile subregion of the continent, with most States immersed in various degrees of political, economic and humanitarian crises. The subregion is host to some 25,000 troops as a result of the presence of UN peacekeeping and peace-building missions in Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Violations and abuses of human rights are the root causes of the various crises in the subregion. Such crises, especially armed conflict,when they flare up in one country have repercussions in others because of cross-border ethnic relations, a high level of migration in the region and the inter-related economies. Conflicts have also created added pressures due to the large flows of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) they have generated. There are also problems associated with cross-border involvement in conflicts and the presence of mercenaries from within and outside the region participating in conflicts. These diverse experiences underline the need for a long-term strategy aimed at addressing root causes of conflict while dealing in the short and medium term with its consequences. Arms, combatants, child soldiers, as well as HIV and AIDS and other epidemics, continue to spread across the region. Communities hosting refugees and returning migrants are over-burdened and government social services in many countries are on the verge of collapse.
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