Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN department that promotes human rights under international law
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.
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.
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 public source identifies “Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights” as uN department that promotes human rights under international law. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Office, United and Nations.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q656812. VIAF identifies the subject as 127505546. The Library of Congress control number is no95043719. Authority coordinates are 46.215, 6.151. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1993, 2022 and 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.