OHCHR Gender Accreditation Programme

OHCHR and women’s human rights and gender equality

​​​​​OHCHR and women’s human rights and gender equality

Issues in focus

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​​​​​OHCHR and women’s human rights and gender equality

Issues in focus

The OHCHR Gender Accreditation Programme was one of the Office innovations in the OHCHR Organizational Effectiveness Action Plan 2018-2021 on Diversity and Gender (OEAP DG). The implementation of this internal programme is one of the High Commissioner’s pledges as an International Gender Champion

Goals of the programme

The programme aims to strengthen gender equality and diversity both within OHCHR’s institutional environment (culture, structure and processes) as well as throughout the office’s substantive work. The programme translates our commitments to gender equality, diversity and inclusion into concrete actions. It intensively builds the capacity of staff and managers on gender and diversity integration towards the achievement of a set of indicators, anchored in OHCHR’s existing framework and internal and external commitments on gender, diversity and inclusion.

A diverse, inclusive and better-trained workforce, as well as a gender-responsive institutional environment, are major enablers to deliver better results and realize human rights for all. The programme also responds to a need to further develop technical competencies to integrate gender in practice, and to foster increased ownership of gender equality across all offices.

How it works

OHCHR Women’s Human Rights and Gender Section issues an annual Call for Application. Two OHCHR field Offices are selected every year.

The OHCHR Women’s Human Rights and Gender Section works closely with participating offices, providing in situ and remotely tailored support, drawing from the wide array of specialized expertise in women’s human rights and gender equality.

To receive accreditation, participating offices need to meet standards in six performance areas:

  • Management and accountability capacities
  • Organizational culture and workplace
  • Human Rights work
  • Partnerships
  • Knowledge
  • Communication

Once that the office is accredited, it continues to receive support from the OHCHR Gender Accreditation Team and the Women’s Human Rights and Gender Section through the OHCHR Accreditation Programme internal community of practice.

It is an innovative way to promote learning gender equality and diversity, as well as to track and reward progress in country offices and at Headquarters, whilst fostering accountability, through a process that recognizes good performance and delivery of results.

The programme was successfully piloted in 2019 in the OHCHR offices in Cambodia and the State of Palestine and rolled  out in 2020-21 in the OHCHR Office in Colombia and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. The programme is currently being implemented in OHCHR Syria and Guatemala. 

Please see more information in our newsletters.

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