UnitedNations

Ateattnaa.zs
Distr.: General 14 December 2007 Original:English

GeneralAssemblv

Sixty-second session Agenda items 65, l2'7 and 128 Report of the Human Rights Council Programme budget for the biennium 2006-2001. Proposed programme budget for the biennium 200g-2009

Revisedestimatesrelating to the programme budget for the biennium 2006-2007 and,to the proposed prograr;me budget for the biennium 2008-2009 undef seciions 2,23, 27, 28E and 35 and income sectionI and proposal related to unforeseenand extraordinary expenses aiising from the implementation of decisionsof the Human Rigtrts Council
Twenty-sixth report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions on the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009

I. Introduction
l. The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary euestions has considered the report of the Secretary-General the revised estimatesrelating on to the programme budget for the biennium 2006-2007 and to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 20A8-2009under sections2.23,27,288 and 35 and income section I and proposal related to unforeseen and extraordinary expenses arising from the implementation of decisions of the Human Rights Councit (A/6211251. During its consideration of the report, the Advisory Comrnittee met with representatives the Secretary-General, of rvho provided additional information and clarifications. 2. In its resolution 60/251,the GeneralAssembly decided to establishthe Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, in replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of the Assembly and decided, inter alia, that the Council shall undertakea universal periodic review, basedon objective and reliable information, of the fulfihnent by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments, and assume,review and, where necessary, improve and rationalize all

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mandates,mechanisms,functions and responsibilitiesof the Commission on Human Rights in order to maintain a system of special procedures,expert advice and a complaint procedure. The Assembly also decided that the Council "shall meet regularly throughout the year and schedule no fewer than three sessionsper year, including a main session,for a total duration of no less than l0 weeks, and shall be able to hold special sessions,when needed, at the request of a member of the Council with the support of one third of the membershipof the Council.

II.

Revised estimates
3. The revised estimates in document A/62/125 are submitted in response to Human Rights Council decision 3/104, by which the Council requested the Secretary-Generalto report to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on ways and means to guarantee to the Council the provision of: (a) conference services; (b) webcast transmission; (c) translation of documentation; and (d) adequate funding for unforeseen and extraordinary expenses arising from the implementation of the Council's decisions. The Advisory Committee has commented in its first report on the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009 on the timing of the submission of the revised estimates,noting that Human Rights Council decision 3/104 was adoptedon 8 December2006, and on the need to avoid a piecemealapproachto budgeting (seeA/6217,para. VI.4). 4. Estimated additional requirements arising from decision 3/104 total $8,057,000,as follows: Human Rights Council

(a) A total of $4,351,500 for the biennium 2006-2007, comprising (i) $3,792,100under section 2, GeneralAssembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conferencemanagement,of the programme budget, (ii) $190,700 under section 27, Public information, (iii) S291,600 under section 28E, Administration, Geneva,and (iv) $77,100 under section 35, Staff assessment; (b) A total of $3,705,500 (before recosting) for the biennium 2008-2009, cornprising (i) $1,019,700for section 23, Human rights, of the proposedprogramme b u d g e t , ( i i ) $ 1 , 3 5 6 , 8 0 0u n d e r s e c t i o n 2 7 , P u b l i c i n f o r m a t i o n ,( i i i ) 9 9 5 2 , 1 0 0u n d e r section 28E, Administration, Geneva, and (iv) $376,900 under section 35. Staff assessment.

A.
l.

Proposals by budget section
Section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management 5. As indicated in paragraph 9 of the report of the Secretary-General(A/621125), it is projectedthat, as from 20O7,the Human Rights Council will hold an additional l0 weeks of meetings per year for a total of 20 weeks of meetings per year. For 2006-2007, a one-time requirement of s3,792,1 00 is estimated to supplement resources for temporary assistance for meetings for the projected additional l0 weeks of meetings in 2o07. It is proposed that the additional amount be accommodatedwithin approved available resourcesunder section 2 and reported in the context of the second performance report for the biennium 200o-2007. The Advisory Committee has no objection to this course of action. The Committee

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At62t7tAdd.2s notes that in the second performance report, reduced requirementsof $15.4 million are reported for section 2 (seeA/621575,schedule 1). 6. As indicated in paragraph l3 of the report of the Secretary-General, 2008for 2009, it is anticipated that additional requirements under section 2 would result in net zero growth against the proposed programme budget for the biennium 20082009. The proposal includes an increase of 27 Professionalposts (12 p-5,'I p-4, 8 P-3), offset by the abolition of 12 General Service (Other level) posts and reflects the strengtheningand realignment of the meetings and documentationmanagement functions under conference management,Geneva, as well as a change in working methods. The Advisory Committee points out that while the proposal is cost-neutral for 2008-2009, as it stands,it would entail additional requirementsfor the biennium 2010-20'iI estimatedat $4,465,900owing to the delayed impact of the 27 new posts proposed. 7. The establishmentof a P-5 post is proposed for the chief of the Meetings Management Section in view of the increased meetings workload for conference services at Geneva resulting from the expansion of the conferenceactivities of the Human Rights council. The Advisory committee is not convinced that the additional workload creates a new function that merits the establishment of a P-5 post. The committee therefore recommends against approval of a p-5 post for the Chief of the Meetings Management Section. 8. In paragraph l3 of the report of the Secretary-General,20new posts (6 p-5, 6 P-4, 8 P-3) are proposed for one additional team of interpreters. Upon enquiry as to the basis for the request for 20 interpreters, the Advisory committee was informed that 4 interpreters each were included for Arabic and Chinese, taking into account language specificities,l and 3 each for English, French, Russian and Spanish. Geneva currently had four teams of interpreterson establishedposts under the regular budget, which are supplementedwith freelancers.The Committee was further informed that while the number of freelancers available in the local market in Geneva was comparatively higher than at other duty stations, the demand had also increased,with competition from specializedagencies,programmes and other organizations for the same pool of freelance interpreters, a problem which was especially acute since some sessionsof the Human Rights Council overlapped with large meetings, such as the International Labour Conference and the World Health Assembly. Moreover, many of the available freelancers had already accepted contracts from organizationswith establishedmeeting dates and thus would not be available on short notice to service the additional meetings of the Council. Given the lack of local resources,the Organization could be forced to recruit non-local freelancers, which would be costly in that it would entail travel, per diem and terminal expenses.For the reasons given by the Secretary-General, as well as those cited above, the Advisory Committee is of the view that the case has been made for the establishment of one additional team of interpreters in Geneva. It

I Upon enquiry,the Committeewas informed that Arabic and Chineseinterpreters are requiredto work both from and into their main language. For example,when a speechis deliveredin Arabic or Clhinese, interpreter the will provide official interpretation into anotherofficiat (usually English or French),which the other boothswill use as the sourcelanguage. ln Ianguage ordei to provide the necessary coverage, three interpreters work in the booth at a time for Arabic and Chinese,as cotnpared two interpreters a time fbr English,French,Russianand Spanish. to at

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therefore recommends approval of the additional 6 P-5, 6 P-4 and 8 P-3 posts requested for one additional team of interpreters. 9. As part of the proposal, the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management intends to increaseits reliance on contractualtranslation in Geneva as a more cost-effective mode of translating certain types of documents and to address the increased documentation workload (see A162/125, para. l3). To this end, the proposesthe redeploymentof $2,100,000in temporary assistance Secretary-General resourcesto contractualtranslation,as well as the establishmentof one new P-4 post for the Chief of the Contractual Translation Unit and the establishmentof five P-5 posts for Senior Revisers to ensure "appropriate quality control as a result of increased reliance on external translations, in accordance with section V paragraph 10, of General Assembly resolution 6l/236" (A1621125, para. l3 (b) (ii)). The proposal also reflects reduced requirements under temporary assistance resources($1,414,000)resulting from the realignmentbetween temporary assistance for meetings and establishedcapacity. As indicated in paragraph l4 of the report, cost avoidance of $969,200 is anticipated as a result of the changes to working methods. 10. With the still relatively low volume of contractual translation in Geneva, the Advisory Committee believes that a new P-4 post for the Chief of the Contractual Translation Unit is not yet required. It therefore recommends against the establishment of a new P-4 post for the Chief of the Unit. I l. As to the five P-5 senior reviser posts requested,the Advisory Committee notes that this is the third such request. The Committee has commented in detail concerning the requests in the proposed programme budget for seven new P-5 Senior Reviser posts for New York and five new P-4 Reviser posts in Vienna (see A/62/7, paras. I.23-L27). The Committee has also commented on the fact that the United Nations Office at Geneva, with its projection for 2008-2009 of 12 per cent contractual translation and 5 per cent off'-site translation, had not taken advantage of the savings possible through external translation (see A162/7, para. I.5l). The Committee encourages the further developmentof contractualtranslationin Geneva as a more cost-effective mode of translating certain types of documents and to addressthe increaseddocumentationworkload. It notes, however, from additional information provided to it that, although the number of words to be translated contractually in 2008-2009 would increase from a projected 11,900,000 in the original budget submission to 21,700,000 under the revised estimates, overall contractual translation is projected to increase only to l6 per cent, while off-site translationwill actually decrease 3 per cent. to 12. The Advisory Committee underlines the importance of quality control for contractual translation (see4/60/7, para. I.60). Upon request,the Committee was provided with genericjob descriptionsof P-5 and P-4 Reviser posts. The P-5 Serrior Reviser post has, as one of its functions, the revision of translations and original "dealing with subjects summary records of an exceptionally sensitive, complex or technical nature", while the P-4 Reviser post "revises translations and original summary records dealing with a broad range of subjects dealt with by the United Nations". The Committee was informed that it was intended that urgent, politically sensitive translations would be done by more experienced, in-house translators, while lengthy documents with longer lead times would be handled by contractual translators.The Committee considers that the question of the appropriate grade

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level for revisers for quality control of contractual translation should be kept under review. 13. In the view of the Advisory committee, the need for quality control and the consequent request for additional resources at three duty stations for revisers and senior revisers raises the question of how best this function might be handled, taking into account the overalt capacity of the Department of General Assembly and conference Management. The committee therefore recommends that the Department explore all viable options for quatity control of contractual translation and report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session. 14. Pending such an analysis, the Advisory committee recommends approval, at this stage, of temporary assistanceresources equivalent to five P-5 positions for revisers at the United Nations Office at Geneva.
7

Section 23, Human rights 15. Additional requirementsfor the biennium 2008-2009 under section 23, Human Rights, are estimated at $[,019,700, as follows: travel of representatives attend to sessions of the Human Rights council ($94,400); five new professional posts ($7a9,000); furniture and equipment ($20,800); general temporary assistance ($57,200); overtime ($10,400) and travel of staff ($87,900). 16. Five new posts (2 P-4,2 P-3 and I P-2) are requestedfrorn 1 January 2008 to support the Human Rights council. As noted in paragraph 30 of the report of the Secretary-General, this would be in addition to the proposed establishment,in a phased manner, of 36 new posts under the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009. Four posts ( I P-4, 2 P-3 and 1 P-2) are requested for Human Rights officers to reinforce the support and coordination Unit in handling increaseddemandsin the areas of planning and administration, media, information and technology support, outreach and liaison with stakeholders.A p-4 post is requested for a Human Rights officer in the Complaint Procedure Unit to be responsible for the supervision and oversight of the operation of the complaint procedure, including interaction with external stakeholders,as well as liaison with other branches and divisions of the office of the United Nations High commissioner for Human Rights (oHCHR). The Advisory committee recommends approval of the five additional posts and the non-post resources requested.

3.

Section 27, Public information 17. Estimated additional resource requirements under section 27, public information, amount to $190,700 for the biennium 2006-2007 and $1.356.800 for 2008-2009.It is proposed to absorb the additional requirements for 2006-2007, all of which are related to press, radio, television and photographic coverage of the additional weeks of meetings of the Human Rights Council, within the resources available under section 27, to be reported in the context of the secondperformance report. For 2008-2009, an estirnated $381,400 is required for such coverage of Council meetings. However, most of the additional requirementsrelate to provision for webcast transmissionon a regular basis of all regular and special sessionsof the Council($975,400).

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at 18. As noted in paragraph41 of the report of the Secretary-General, the request of the Human Rights Council, UN Webcast,in coordination with the UnitedNations Information Service at Geneva, provided live and on-demand webcast coverageof the three regular sessionsand fourth special sessionof the Council, held in Geneva in 2006. The cost of the webcasting was met through a combination of existing resourcesof OHCHR, the Division of Administration, the United Nations Office at Geneva and the Department of Public Information, and a voluntary contribution. The Advisory Committee was informed that extrabudgetary contributions had been made available for the continuationof webcastinguntil the end of 2007. lg. In paragraph 46 of his report, the Secretary-Generaldescribes options for handling the request made by the Human Rights Council for the continuation of webcasting in 2008-2009. The establishmentof a permanent capacity at the Palais des Nations is expectedto be the most practical and cost-effectivein the long term, assumingthat there is an expansionof the webcast delivery system at Headquarters. However, it is proposed that the implementation of that option be delayed until the biennium 2010-2011 owing to the current evolution in the television broadcast industry, which has mandated changes beginning in 2009. Furthermore, it is proposed that a study be undertaken during 2008 to determine the exact television requirementsfor Geneva and accurate costing for a permanent solution that woulc include high-definition cameras and systems and that the requirements be consideredin the context of the proposedprogramme budget for the biennium 201020ll.In the interim, the option of continuation of temporary capacity for webcast operation is the recommended approach. This would involve a Webcast Producer and a Webcast Officer, both stationed at Headquarters, who would travel to Geneva to cover Council meetings. The requirements for the continuation of temporary capacity and the study to determine the permanent capacity parameters are estimated at $975,400 for 2008-2009. 20. Upon request, the Advisory Committee was provided with updated projected expendituresunder section 27, Public information, of the programme budget for the biennium 2006-2007. The revised appropriation amounted to $178,851,800,while the proposedfinal appropriationis $170,964,700,resulting in savingsof $7,887,100. The Committee notes that in the proposed programme budget for the biennium estimatesrequirementsfor 2008-2009 (seeAl6216 (Sect. 27)), the Secretary-General section 27 at $179,349,000(before recosting),which representsa marginal increase over the revised appropriation for 2006-2007.The Committee notes the additional activities proposed under section 27, as described in the report of the SecretaryGeneral, and the pragmatic approach being taken to the requirement for webcasting for the Human Rights Council. However, taking into account the overall expenditure pattern under section 27 for the current biennium, the Committee is of the opinion that no net additional resource requirements should arise under section 27 for the biennium 2008-2009. 4. Section 28E, Administration, Geneva 21 . Additional requirementsunder section 288 in respect of contractual services, temporary assistance for meetings and general operating expenses relating to the servicing of an additional l0 weeks of meetings per year of the Human Rights Council are estimatedat $291,600 for the biennium 2006-2001and $952,100 for the biennium 2008-2009.The additional requirementsfor 2006-2007 are proposedto be met from within available resources,with actual expenditureto be reported in the

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context of the second performance report for the biennium 2o06-2007. The Committee notes that in the second performance report, reduced requirements of $348,400are reported for section 28E (seeA162/575,schedule 1). 22. For 2008-2009, estimated additional requirements of $952,100 relate to the following: (a) contractual services for sound technicians ($67,600); (b) temporary assistance for meetings to provide security services for meetings, messenger servicesand an information technology assistant($397,800);(c) contractual services for support technicians ($72,500); (d) common support costs for the proposed net l5 posts proposed under sections 2 and 23 of the proposed programme budget for t h e b i e n n i u m2 0 0 8 - 2 0 0 9( $ 4 1 4 , 2 0 0 ) . 23. Upon enquiry, theAdvisory Committee was informed that, based on the latest understanding by the United Nations office at Geneva that, in fact, no rental of extra space would be required, the amount of $298,400 for the cost of premises for l5 new posts would not be required. Therefore, the estimatesfor common support costs could be reduced by $298,400. Moreover, as regards the remaining estimated additional requirements under section 28E, the Committee is of the opinion that no net additional requirements should arise for the biennium 20082009.

B. Unforeseen and extraordinary expensesarising from the
implementation of decisionsof the Human Rights Council
24. In paragraphs 6l to 65 of his report, the Secretary-General makes a case for the inclusion in the biennial resolution on unforeseenand extraordinary expenses of a new paragraph authorizing the Secretary-General, subject to the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, to enter into commitments of up to $2 million during a biennium to meet unforeseenand extraordinaryexpenses arising from human rights measures. The Secretary-General argues that unforeseen expenses for missions of inquiry in the area of human rights under the regular budget have amounted to more than $2 million in the bienniums 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 and that, since human rights activities require urgent and timely action, it would not be appropriate to rely on extrabudgetaryresourcesfor their financing. The provision would finance the deployment of approximately four special missions mandated by the Council. The Secretary-Generalfurther states that it has been possible to accommodatenew requirementswithin the level of resourcesapproved under section23, but that this approachis not sustainable an ongoing basis. on 25. The Advisory committee points out that the purpose of the provision for unforeseen and extraordinary expenses is to deal with expenditures for which no provision has been made in the approved regular budget. If, on the basis of the practice of the last two bienniumso there is recurrent need for special missions in the area of human rights, then, in the interest of budgetary transparency, consideration should be given to including a provision for such requirements in both the budget outline and the proposed programme budget, akin to that used for special political missions. In the meantime, requirements for 2008-2009 relating to special human rights missions should continue to be treated as they have been in the past, that is, they should be accommodated from within the level of resources approved for the biennium 2008-2009 under seciion 23 and reported in the context of the performance report.

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ilI.

Conclusion
26. The action to be taken by the General Assembly is set out in paragraph70 of The Advisory Committee recommends that the report of the Secretary-General. additional requirements for the biennium 2006the General Assembly approve 2007 estimated at 54,274,400 to be met from within the approved resources available under the programme budget for the biennium 2006-2007 and reported in the context of the second performance report for the biennium 2006-2007, as follows: (a) $3,792,100 under section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference managementl (b) $190,700 under section 27, Public information; (c) $291,600 under section 28E, Administration, Geneval and (d) $77,100 under section 35, Staff assessment,to be offset by an equivalent amount under income section 1, Income from staff assessment. 21 . Taking into account its recommendations in the paragraphs above, the Advisory Committee recommends that the General Assembly approve additional resource requirements for the biennium 2008-2009 amounting to $815,000 as follows: (a) A reduction of $369,200 under section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management; (b) An increase of $1,019,700under section 23, Human rights;

(c) Additional resource requirements amounting to $164,500 under section 35, Staff assessment,to be offset by an equivalent amount under income section 1, Income from staff assessment. Under the procedures established by the General Assembly in its resolutions 4l/213 and 42/211, these rsource requirements would represent a charge against the contingency fund. 28. As indicated in paragraphs 20 and 23 above, no net additional resource requirements should arise under sections 27 and 28E for the biennium 2008-2009.