Human Rights Mainstreaming Mechanism

The United Nations Development Group’s Human Rights Mainstreaming mechanism (UNDG-HRM) was established in November 2009.  It responds to the call from the Secretary General in 2008 for a dedicated senior level mechanism to institutionalize the mainstreaming of human rights in the UN’s development work and builds on the achievements of the Action 2 Programme on Human Rights Strengthening.

While significant progress has been made in mainstreaming HRBA across the UN system, significant challenges remain, particularly at country level. The HRM was established to help address these challenges by providing a platform for interagency collaboration to strengthen policy coherence and operational support to UN country teams.  The UNDG-HRM directly responds to the increasing demand from Member States for more technical support on human rights mainstreaming, for example in Universal Periodic Review follow up; strengthening national institutions and capacities; and applying rights-based approaches to national development strategies.  The HRM also seeks to strengthen coordinated UN responses to requests from Member States for support in their efforts to fulfill international human rights commitments.

Priorities of the HRM

The UNDG-HRM will initially focus on four broad priorities:

  1. Promoting a coordinated and coherent UN system-wide approach towards the integration of human rights principles and international standards into UN operational activities for development;
  2. Providing coherent and coordinated support to Resident Coordinators and UN country teams in mainstreaming human rights;
  3. Developing a coherent UN-system wide approach, through cooperation and collaboration among UN agencies, to providing support towards strengthening national human rights protection systems at the request of governments; and
  4. Contributing to the integration of human rights issues in the overall UNDG advocacy on development agenda and global issues

These four priorities provide the framework for the UNDG-HRM’s three year work plan from 2010 to 2013.

Members

The UNDG-HRM is made up of 19 UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes. It is chaired by OHCHR with a rotating vice-chair, reporting to the full UNDG.  UNDOCO provides coordination and secretariat support to the HRM.  A full list of members is available here