As UN member states are discussing the 2022 budget for the organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged members to "stand firm against Russia and China-led efforts to slash funding".
The statement highlighted that a proposed cut would hamper several important investigative mechanisms established by the UN Human Rights Council which include "rights violations in Sri Lanka", "widespread abuses in Belarus", "rights violations across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories", and an "international expert mechanism on rights violations by law enforcement officers against Africans and people of African descent". The statement further notes that Iran's delegations are "making a last-minute push against funding for the team of the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran".
HRW further stressed the need for funding of a "UN study on missing persons and identifying human remains in Syria and for the human rights work of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS)".
"The UN’s so-called independent budget assessment body is increasingly undermining efforts to fund UN human rights work by making what diplomats describe as “politicized” recommendations to reduce funding for rights-related activities" HRW adds.
They further urge governments to continue to "counter the Russian and Chinese push to defund human rights work and ensure all rights activities are fully funded".
"Compromising will only embolden Russia and China in their anti-rights agenda" they note.
In August, the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab responded to constituent concerns over the potential cut to funding stressing the UK's continued commitment to the UN resolution on Sri Lanka.
Raab highlighted the work of the British Foreign Office to secure funding noting that on "6 June, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), an independent expert subsidiary body of the General Assembly, agreed a level of funding for 2021 that would allow OHCHR’s work to get underway".
He added that "although less than originally requested we understand that the ACABQ considered that the reduced initial resourcing allocation, would not reduce its effectiveness during the commencement of initial operations".
Read more here: British Foreign Secretary ensures funding to investigate Sri Lankan war crimes
Read HRW's full statement here.
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