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LDCs/SIDS Trust Fund Regional Workshop

Background and Mandate

strengthened mandate on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the Trust Fund

On 24 March 2017, the Human Rights Council adopted without a vote resolution 34/40entitled Promoting the Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund to Support the Participation of Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States in the Work of the Human Rights Council.

Resolution 34/40 was sponsored /co-sponsored by 120 countries hence becoming the second most sponsored resolution since the establishment of the Human Rights Council in 2006.

The resolution recognizes:

  • the continued achievements of the Trust Fund since its operationalization in 2014, and in particular its contribution to the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Human Rights Council at its thirty-second session in June 2016: for the first time ever, universal participation of the United Nations Member States was achieved;
  • the creation and provision of an e-learning tool, in the working languages of theUN, providing initial training and information on the rules, functioning and customary practices of the Council and its mechanisms; and
  • the efforts made by the secretariat of the Trust Fund to conduct its work in different working languages of the United Nations;

In the same resolution, the HRC decides that the Trust Fund:

  1. conducts at least one briefing a year in New York on the outcomes of the regular and special sessions of the Human Rights Council, prior to the commencement of each session of the General Assembly. The briefing aims at supporting the engagement of LDCs/SIDS delegations in the work of the Third Committee;
  2. conducts workshops in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Caribbean, before the tenth anniversary of the Trust Fund, reflecting on its achievements, identifying where further improvements might be made and assessing the value of its activities in fulfilling its training and capacity-building mandate in support of the engagement of LDCs/SIDS and its mechanisms; and
  3. requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report in which the Office evaluates the activities of the Trust Fund in meeting its training and capacity-building mandate, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its forty-ninth session.

Workshop for the Asia Region

Workshop for the Asia Region in Maldives (3-5 December 2024)

Presentations

Outcome of the Workshop

Statements

Special capacity-building session with Maldives’ government officials

Virtual Workshop of the Asia Region (24-25 November 2021 & 1 December 2021)

Outcome

Statements

Workshop for the Africa Region

Outcome

Statements

Opening

Testimonials recorded videos

Closing

  • Ms. Mary Namono, Rapporteur General Workshop Africa
  • Mr. Eric Tistounet, Chief, Human Rights Council Branch
  • S.E Mr. Dieudonné W. Désiré Sougouri, Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso
  • S. E. Ms. Usha Dwarka-Canabady, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mauritius

Workshop for the Pacific Region

Thematic Concept Note

Outcome

Statements

Opening

Keynote speech at the Workshop

Closing

Media

Media Advisory

Articles

  • Human rights should be for everyone: Ambassador Khan
    FBC News
    Human rights must not be the intellectual chattering of a privileged few says Fiji’ Ambassador to the United Nations Nazhat Shameem Khan. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council workshop in Nadi today, Ambassador Shameem says human rights must have relevance to the lives of people in the rural and urban areas of the country. She also says that over the years as Fiji’s Ambassador in Geneva, she has seen more Pacific Permanent Missions established and more representatives of Pacific Small Island States engaging in the Human Rights Council.
     
  • Human rights should be for everyone: Ambassador Khan
    FBC News
    Government officials in the Pacific region together with the President of the Human Rights Council will meet in Fiji on Tuesday for a three-day workshop.

Pictures

 

Workshop for the Caribbean Region

Background information

Outcome

Statements

Opening

Closing

Press releases

Pictures and Videos

1. Workshop


Legend: Opening Ceremony LDCs/SIDS Workshop for the Caribbean Region, 19-20 November 2018, Georgetown, Guyana
From left to right: Ambassador Missouri Sherman Peter ( Permanent Observer of CARICOM to the United Nations in New York); Eric Tistounet (Chief, Human Rights Council Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights);The Hon. Moses Verasammy Nagamootoo (First Vice-President and Prime Minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, performing functions of the President); Ambassador Vojislav Šuc (President of the United Nations Human Rights Council - Twelfth Cycle, 2018); Ambassador Colin Granderson (Assistant Secretary-General, Directorate for Foreign and Community Relations – CARICOM) and Ms. Fatou Camara Houel (Coordinator of  Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund to Support the Participation of Least Developed Countries (LDCs)and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the work of the Human Rights Council ).

2. Photo boot

70 UDHR, Universal Participation, Elimination of Violence Against Women

Articles in the media