ABSTRACT
When the United Nations General Assembly agreed to the establishment of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in December 1993, many human rights advocates were sure that “a new era of commitment to ensuring human rights had arrived.”1
Decades of human rights standard-setting had at last given way to a new age of human rights implementation and enforcement. As Felice Gaer recalls, “During the Cold War years-when Soviet bloc countries routinely challenged the relevance of individual rights-the discussion of specific violations by countries remained a largely taboo topic within UN human rights bodies.”2 When the Cold War ended, anything seemed possible. All hopes were pinned on the OHCHR and expectations were high that the UN human rights system would mature and its effectiveness would significantly be enhanced. Ever since the office’s founding, then, a heavy burden has been
placed on the OHCHR. New challenges are constantly being presented to the High Commissioner charged with leading the office. With the increased awareness of human rights issues and the growing tendency of states to invoke human rights as integral to foreign policy decisions, the expectations upon the UN human rights system have increased dramatically in recent years. Demands on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights further increased as a result of the direction given by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, as part of his “Agenda for Further Change.”3
