The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) assists the work of all mandate holders, effectively acting as a secretariat for Special Procedures.
It provides support in several areas, such as legal expertise, research and analytical assistance as well as fact-finding and also processes communications sent by mandate holders.
The Special Procedures are directly supported by teams of staff from OHCHR. Based in Geneva – and usually consisting of only one or two people – they help to perform research for reports, draft communications and press releases, and meet with civil society in Geneva when the mandate holder is not present.
The team’s resources are very limited, and it also supports the mandate holders in organising the logistics and agenda of any official travel.
Now it's time to reflect again on the strengths and weaknesses of the Special Procedures, in the next section.
