The office was established in 2002.
Total number of staff: 12.
Responsibilities and mandate
• Liaising with the relevant regional (AU and ECA) and
national actors and UNCTs (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and
Tanzania) and engage them in the development and
implementation of human rights;
• Communicate on a regular basis with HQs and OHCHR field
presences in East Africa;
• Monitor major developments in regards to human rights in
East Africa and flag opportunities for engagement, emerging
trends or requests for action from HQs;
• Provide support to OHCHR field presences in East Africa
upon request;
• Network with relevant OHCHR divisions and branches to
prepare/implement activities;
• Evaluate effectiveness of activities and Regional Office’s
impact in the sub-region and adjust based on the outcome of
the assessment;
• Provide inputs for UN reports and submit internal periodic
reports.
Achievements
African Union
EARO adopted a two-dimensional approach to its regional
engagement aiming at strengthening the capacity of AU organs
with a human rights mandate and to reinforce ECA’s efforts
in mainstreaming human rights and the right to development
in regional programs.
EARO was able to start engaging AU organs with a human
rights mandate and a wide range of CSOs towards the
development of a human rights strategy for Africa. It also
liaise with both the AU and the UN agencies by facilitating
the sub-cluster on human rights, justice and reconciliation
and providing technical and financial support to the African
NGO Forum held regularly at the fringe of the African
commission on human and people’s rights’ sessions.
Ethiopia
EARO’s country strategy for Ethiopia has been developed in
the context of the 5-year multi-donor Democratic
Institutions Program (DIP). EARO’s participation in the DIP
is aimed at building the capacity of the Ethiopian Human
Rights Commission (EHRC) to be in compliance with the Paris
Principles. Activities designed to build the Government’s
capacity in the area of treaty reporting and awareness
raising activities on human rights both led in cooperation
with the EHRC yielded concrete results such as the
submission of Ethiopia’s 19 overdue reports to the TBs, its
report to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’
Rights (ACHPR) and its report to the Human Rights Council in
the context of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Djibouti
EARO was successful in institutionalizing the treaty
reporting process by advocating for the creation of an
inter-ministerial committee to coordinate the reporting
process to treaty bodies and to the HRC. EARO also
successfully lobbied for the creation of a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) in Djibouti.
Using the UPR and CRC’s recommendations as a framework, EARO
developed a two-year UN joint program on technical
assistance on human rights with the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Tanzania
EARO is operating under the UN Delivering as One framework
and its joint UN programs and programming. EARO was able to
assert its position as lead agency for all matters
pertaining human rights within the UNCT. The office
conducted a mapping of human rights activities let by UN
agencies in the country as well as an evaluation of joint
programs from a human rights based approach. EARO is
assisting the Government in establishing a coordination
mechanism in charge of the reporting to TBs and following up
the implementation of the TBs recommendations and in the
development of a National Plan of Action for the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights. Tanzania’s NHRI and CSOs
also benefited from EARO’s technical assistance to
strengthen their capacities to interact with UN and regional
human rights mechanisms.
Priorities
For its upcoming biennium, EARO has selected the following
thematic priorities:
• Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
In the context of EARO’s priority countries, the victims of
the economic and financial crisis and their impact on the
realization of economic, social and cultural rights are the
inhabitants of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Tanzania have all ratified
or acceded to the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which requires that State
Parties achieve the progressive realization of economic,
social and cultural rights. Lack of financial resources is
the argument put forward for not fully meeting their
obligation to monitor the level of enjoyment of those
rights. Moreover, although the national human rights
institutions in Tanzania, Djibouti and Ethiopia have a
mandate to promote and protect all human rights, they have
taken a very limited role in the monitoring of the
realization of ESCR in those countries.
The UN system in these three countries has been engaged in
promoting ESCR and supporting national efforts to realize
and protect these rights in the context of the national
poverty reduction strategy and the implementation of the
MDGs.
• Rule of law, accountability/combating impunity,
strengthening administration of justice/democratic
institutions
The underlying causes of poverty are often
deep-rooted and worsened by poor administration, weak
democratic institutions and an overall lack of
accountability.
• Strengthening mechanisms/ Progressive development of
international human rights law
The challenge lies in realizing the implementation of the
human rights framework through ensuring that the AU’s human
rights mechanisms are operational and effecting. The
ultimate beneficiaries of a strengthened human rights agenda
in the AU are the populations of the AU member States. The
AU, along with its institutions mandated to promote and
protect human rights, are the potential key actors in
influencing the duty bearers to improve their state
policies, encourage them to ratify international/regional
human rights treaties as well as to carry out their
obligations under these treaties and expedite their
realization through their supervisory and monitoring
mandates.
Budget 2008-2009
|