The General Assembly adopted Resolution A/Res/60/153 in 2005 asking “the Secretary-General and the Office of the High Commissioner to give their support to the establishment of a United Nations human rights training and documentation centre for South-West Asia and the Arab region, to conclude an agreement with the host country regarding its establishment and to make available resources for the establishment of the centre.” The resolution defined the Centre’s mandate as: “to undertake training and documentation activities according to international human rights standards and to support such efforts within the region by Governments, United Nations agencies and programmes, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.” Discussions on establishing the Centre are ongoing with the Government of Qatar with a view to opening it in 2008.
Priorities
With the objective of strengthening a human rights culture and building human rights expertise, the Regional Centre will rely on up-to-date tools and methodologies to promote human rights through active learning, provision of advisory services on curricula design and dissemination of information. Activities will target line-ministry officials, national human rights institutions, secretariats of intergovernmental organizations, law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, students, professional groups, and NGOs identified by the regional and other field offices.
The Centre will focus on increasing the capacity of the judiciary, law enforcement officials, members of parliaments and their staff, and other actors to apply human rights standards in their work. It will develop and provide information and documentation systems on human rights and disseminate information through various media outlets. Training and documentation projects will be carried out to raise awareness about human rights and foster research with civil society actors, universities, research and training centres and media organizations. The Centre will advocate for the ratification of core human rights treaties, the withdrawal of reservations, and the implementation of and follow-up on reporting obligations and concluding observations.
A library and an Arabic website will be created. As part of OHCHR’s media strategy for the region, and benefiting from the proximity of Al-Jazeera’s headquarters, human rights information will be disseminated through regional media. Complementing the activities already conducted by OHCHR to strengthen human rights groups, the Centre will encourage civil society organizations and academics to publish high-quality reports on specific human rights issues and will assist in translating and disseminating them.