The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1993 in the wake of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.
The office is headed by the high commissioner for human rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the United Nations System and acts as the secretariat of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The eighth and current high commissioner is Volker Türk of Austria, who succeeded Michelle Bachelet of Chile on 8 September 2022.
In 2018–2019, the department had a budget of US$201.6 million (3.7 per cent of the United Nations regular budget), and approximately 1,300 employees based in Geneva and New York City. It is an ex officio member of the Committee of the United Nations Development Group.
Contents
Functions and organization
Mandate
The mandate of OHCHR derives from Articles 1, 13 and 55 of the Charter of the United Nations, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and General Assembly resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993, by which the Assembly established the post of United Nations high commissioner for human rights. As part of a programme for United Nations reform (A/51/950, para. 79), the Centre for Human Rights was incorporated within the OHCHR on 15 September 1997.
In September 2026, the office added 61 companies to its database of businesses linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, bringing the total to 214 companies across 11 countries. Inclusion in the database requires a company to be engaged in at least one of 10 prohibited activities, such as facilitating the construction and expansion of settlements, supplying surveillance and identification equipment, providing banking services, and delivering services and utilities. The applicable standard of proof is reasonable grounds to believe that a company is involved in at least one of these prohibited activities.
Purpose
The objectives of OHCHR are to:
Promote universal enjoyment of all human rights by giving practical effect to the will and resolve of the world community as expressed by the United Nations
Play the leading role on human rights issues and emphasize the importance of human rights at the international and national levels
Promote international cooperation for human rights
Stimulate and coordinate action for human rights throughout the United Nations system
Promote universal ratification and implementation of international standards
Assist in the development of new norms
Support human rights organs and treaty monitoring bodies
Respond to serious violations of human rights
Undertake preventive human rights action
Promote the establishment of national human rights infrastructures
Undertake human rights field activities and operations
Provide education, information advisory services and technical assistance in the field of human rights
Organization
The OHCHR is divided into organizational units, as described below. The OHCHR is headed by a High Commissioner with the rank of Under-Secretary-General.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, accountable to the secretary-general, is responsible for all the activities of the OHCHR. He or she advises the Secretary-General on human rights issues, ensures that substantive and administrative support is given to the projects, activities, organs and bodies of the human rights programme, represents the secretary-general at meetings of human rights organs and at other human rights events, and carries out special assignments as decided by the secretary-general. In addition to human rights in legally binding treaties, the high commissioner also promotes human rights not yet recognized in international law, including economic, social and cultural rights.
The deputy high commissioner lends specific substantive and administrative support to the high commissioner.
The current deputy high commissioner is Kate Gilmore.
The assistant secretary-general for Human Rights heads the New York Office of the High Commissioner. The New York Office represents the high commissioner at United Nations Headquarters in New York and promotes the integration of human rights in policy processes and activities undertaken by UN inter-governmental and inter-agency bodies, including General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.
The post was created in 2010, when Ivan Šimonović was appointed to the position. From 2016 to 2019, the position was held by Andrew Gilmour. The current assistant secretary-general for human rights, since 2020, is Ilze Brands Kehris.
The Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division is headed by a director who is accountable to the high commissioner. The core functions of the division are to:
Promote and protect the right to development, in particular by:
Controversy
Journalist Emma Reilly alleged in 2021 that the OHCHR provided names of Chinese participants in UN human rights activities to China on request. This is supposed to have occurred on multiple occasions from before 2012 to at least 2019, despite an explicit ban against this sort of activity according to Reilly who says she found this in email correspondence. The OHCHR has rejected the claims, stating that the once standard practice of corresponding that way with national governments has not occurred since 2015.