On Thursday, 4 March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, presented the Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Human Rights Council (HRC). This was followed by an interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner in which countries expressed their concerns over the geographic imbalance in the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner, the right to development with a focus on the impact of the global economic and financial crisis, and human rights relating to issues of migrants, racial discrimination, xenophobia and gender inequality.
The High Commissioner highlighted a few outstanding country cases, including the treatment of journalists and human rights defenders in Sri Lanka and the arbitrary arrest of demonstrators in Iran as well as responding to questions and issues raised by delegations on the thematic priority of migration and the promotion of a human rights-based approach to this. The Commissioner said that the Office would place a great importance on eliminating racial discrimination against migrants, particularly in regards to economic, social and cultural rights.
On the right to development, the Commissioner stressed that this continued to be a high priority for her Office, specifically aimed at protecting and promoting this right through its mainstreaming. The Office planned to expand advocacy and outreach operations in order to integrate the right to development into the work of the Office and its outreach mechanisms.
On human rights and gender, the Office was addressing de jure and de facto discrimination against women and was working to enhance accountability and combat trafficking while monitoring violations of women's rights at the field level.
The Council concluded the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner on 5 March, following which it will begin with the thematic reports from the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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