Human rights advisers are deployed upon request by UN Resident Coordinators to advise the Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UN Country Team (UNCT) on human rights and to work closely with the UNCT on capacity building and mainstreaming human rights in their work, as well as to support their engagement with national actors on human rights, including advising national authorities upon request. They support the Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams in integrating human rights into their programme strategies and implementation. They also advise the Resident Coordinator and the UN Country Team on strategies to build and strengthen national human rights capacities, and where requested, provide technical assistance and advice to the Government and other national stakeholders in strengthening national capacity for the promotion and protection of human rights. Human rights advisers are in principle funded by cost sharing agreement between OHCHR and the United Nations Country Team.
As of the end of 2010, OHCHR had 16 human rights advisers in Ecuador, Chad, Great Lakes (Bujumbura), Honduras, Kenya, the Republic of Moldova, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Serbia, South Caucasus (based in Tbilisi and covering Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia), Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The human rights advisers in Albania, Indonesia and Nicaragua discontinued their work. Advisers are expected to be deployed to Chad, Ukraine and Madagascar in 2011.
Details on the individual field presences can be found in the relevant sections of the Strategic Management Plan.