28/25 United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture - Note by the Secretary-General

GE.14-24797 (E)



Human Rights Council Twenty-eighth session

Agenda item 2

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the

High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture

Note by the Secretary-General

Summary

The present note, which complements the report of the Secretary-General on the

activities of the Fund submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session

(A/69/296), provides information on the activities of the United Nations Voluntary Fund

for Victims of Torture and describes in particular the recommendations adopted by the

Board of Trustees of the Fund at its fortieth session.

I. Introduction

A. Submission of the report

1. The present note was prepared in accordance with General Assembly resolution

68/156, and complements the report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Fund,

which was submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session (A/69/296). It

presents updated information on the activities of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for

Victims of Torture, in particular the recommendations adopted by the Board of Trustees of

the Fund at its fortieth session, held in Geneva from 29 September to 3 October 2014.

B. Mandate of the Fund

2. The Fund receives voluntary contributions from Governments, non-governmental

organizations and individuals. In accordance with the mandate of the Fund outlined in

General Assembly resolution 36/151, and the practices established by the Board of Trustees

since 1982, the Fund provides grants to established channels of assistance, including non-

governmental organizations, associations of victims and of family members of victims,

private and public hospitals, legal clinics, and public interest law firms and individual

lawyers, that submit projects involving medical, psychological, social, financial, legal and

humanitarian or other forms of assistance to victims of torture and members of their

families.

C. Administration of the Fund and composition of the Board of Trustees

3. The Secretary-General administers the Fund through the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with the advice of the Board of

Trustees, which is composed of five members who act in their personal capacity and are

appointed by the Secretary-General with due regard to the principle of equitable

geographical distribution and in consultation with their Governments. The Board is

currently composed of Maria Cristina de Mendonca (Portugal), Morad el-Shazly (Egypt),

Anastasia Pinto (India) and Adam Bodnar (Poland). On 10 July 2014, the Secretary-

General appointed Gaby Oré Aguilar (Peru) for a three-year term, renewable once, to

replace Mercedes Doretti (Argentina) following the latter’s resignation.

II. Management of grants

A. Admissibility criteria

4. Project admissibility criteria are outlined in the guidelines of the Fund for Victims of

Torture, which were revised at the thirty-ninth session of the Board of Trustees, in 2014.

The guidelines require a project to be presented by an established channel of assistance,

including non-governmental organizations, associations of victims and of family members

of victims, private and public hospitals, legal clinics, public interest law firms and

individual lawyers. The beneficiaries must be direct victims of torture or direct family

members. Priority is given to projects providing direct assistance to torture victims, which

may consist of medical or psychological assistance, help with social or financial

reintegration through vocational training for victims, and various forms of legal assistance

for victims or members of their families, including assistance in seeking redress or applying

for asylum. As a general rule, projects are supported on a yearly basis for a maximum of

two cycles of five consecutive years each, subject to a satisfactory evaluation of the project

and availability of funds. Depending on the resources available, the Fund may finance

projects to organize training programmes, seminars or conferences to allow health-care

professionals or other service providers to exchange best practices. Grant requests for

projects involving investigation, research, studies, publications or other similar activities

are not admissible.

5. The Fund can also provide emergency assistance. Requests of this type are examined

according to specific procedures outlined in the guidelines for the Fund. Emergency

projects have to contain the same basic components as regular ones (namely, direct

assistance to victims of torture and their families, non-governmental channels of

assistance).

B. Monitoring and evaluation of grants

6. Pre-screening visits to projects are undertaken systematically before a grant is

awarded. Regular monitoring visits to ongoing projects are also scheduled to assess the

implementation of the projects funded. An internal guide on conducting visits to projects

that have been funded or are to be funded was developed in 2013 by the secretariat, in order

to enhance verification methodology and coherence. In 2014, a total of 89 projects were

visited. In the period under review, 50 visits were undertaken by the secretariat of the Fund,

of which six were conducted jointly with members of the Board of Trustees, one was

carried out by one member of the Board of Trustees, 31 by OHCHR field presences and one

by OHCHR desk officers.

7. During the period under review, the joint secretariat (responsible for the

administration of this Fund, the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary

Forms of Slavery and the Special Fund established by the Optional Protocol to the

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or

Punishment) has continued to align the working methods of the three funds with a view to

heightening cost-effectiveness and sharing best practices. These efforts were noted with

satisfaction by the respective Boards of Trustees and by Member States.

III. Financial situation of the Fund

8. The Fund continues to struggle to achieve a satisfactory level of yearly contributions

that would enable it to meet all demands for assistance from all regions of the world,

including those made in the context of emergency and humanitarian crises. According to

the Board, the Fund would need to receive $12 million on a yearly basis to be able to

respond adequately to new and emergency situations, such as those currently unfolding in

the Central African Republic, Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic and its neighbouring

countries, and Ukraine.

9. The table below shows the contributions and pledges received in 2014 until the time

of writing. As at the fortieth session of the Board, at which grants were recommended for

2015, the Fund had available a total net of $7,335,400 for grants to be disbursed in 2015.

Contributions and pledges received from 1 January to 10 November 2014

Donor

Amount

(United States dollars) Date of receipt

State

Andorra 13 755 25 April 2014

Austria 59 289 16 September 2014

Chile 10 000 15 April 2014

Denmark 530 129 30 September 2014

Egypt 10 000 9 July 2014

Germany 547 196 27 March 2014

Germany

Germany

200 535

748 150

7 August 2014

2 December 2014

Holy See 917 14 March 2014

Holy See 923 28 October 2014

India 25 000 29 October 2013

Ireland 116 919 4 April 2014

Kuwait 10 000 18 February 2014

Liechtenstein 25 907 17 November 2014

Norway 133 761 27 May 2014

Peru 1 850 5 September 2014

Turkey 10 000 30 May 2014

United Arab Emirates

United States of America

10 000

6 350 000

6 May 2014

9 December 2014

Subtotal 8 804 331

Private / public

individual donors

Nederlands Juristen Comité

voor de Mensenrechten

(NJCM)

4 080 11 March 2014

Subtotal 4 080

Donor

Amount

(United States dollars) Date of receipt

Total contributions 8 808 111

Pledges

Algeria 5 000 11 November 2013

Finland 348 692 21 November 2014

Mexico 5 000 28 August 2014

Total pledges 358 692

IV. Fortieth session of the Board of Trustees

10. The fortieth session of the Board was held in Geneva from 29 September to 3

October 2014. The Board examined applications for funding and made recommendations

on grants to be awarded to beneficiary organizations for the period from 1 January to 31

December 2015.

11. The amount available for distribution to projects was calculated after deducting

programme support costs, the operating cash reserve and the expenditure for non-grant

activities from the total amount of contributions received after the thirty-eighth session of

the Board, held in October 2013.

12. The Board of Trustees considered a total of 257 admissible project proposals aimed

at providing direct assistance to victims of torture and their family members, amounting to

a total request of $14,796,502.

13. The Board reviewed positively a total of 190 projects in more than 81 countries for a

total amount of $6,335,400. Notably, it recommended for a grant 167 ongoing projects

aimed at providing direct assistance to victims, for a total of $5,670,000; 20 new projects

aimed at providing direct assistance to victims, for a total of $590,000; and three grants for

new training and seminars projects, for a total of $75,400.

14. The Board also recommended setting aside an additional $1 million to support

capacity-building projects of new rehabilitation centres, in particular in less developed

regions, and for emergency grants to be considered in 2015 through its intersessional

procedure, thereby adhering more strictly to General Assembly resolution 36/151.

15. In doing so, the Board reached all its operational targets to be achieved from 2015 to

2017, as described in the report of the Secretary-General submitted to the General

Assembly (A/69/296). All project proposals were reviewed on a competitive basis, taking

into account the merit and documented needs, as well as years of continuous support by the

Fund to the same project. This resulted in a more manageable project portfolio, a significant

increase in the average grant size and a more balanced distribution of projects among the

five regions of the world.

16. The Board also recommended that special attention should continue to be paid to the

needs in Ukraine and the Middle-East, in particular in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq.

17. At its fortieth session, the Board held a meeting with Member States during which

two representatives of organizations supported by the Fund, Dieynaba Ndoye of Vivre

Caprec in Senegal, and Amin Ahmed of Wchan Organization for Victims of Human Rights

Violations in Iraq, presented their work in support of victims fleeing from Central African

Republic and Guinea and with victims from Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. During the

meeting, delegations from all regions praised the concrete impact achieved on the ground

by the Fund, and congratulated the Board and secretariat for the increased outreach and

transparency demonstrated in 2014.

18. In application of the policy recommendations adopted by the Board at its thirty-ninth

session, administrative compliance by grant beneficiaries was vigorously enforced during

the period under review, particularly in relation to the requirement for the timely

submission of financial and audit reports.

19. Recalling its desire to make the Fund a platform for knowledge-sharing and

expertise, the Board recommended that the secretarait organize a thematic workshop at its

forty-first session, at which selected experts and practitioners would be invited to present

their research and experience.

20. During its fortieth session, the Board also reiterated its will to increase cooperation

with other torture-related mechanisms. In this perspective, it met with two members of the

Committee against Torture,Jens Modvig and Alessio Bruni, to discuss concrete means of

enhancing cooperation between the Committee and the Fund in the light of Committee

general comment No. 3 on article 14 of the Convention. Informal discussions were also

held with the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez.

21. The Board also encouraged the secretariat to continue its outreach and visibility

efforts.

V. Making a contribution

22. Governments, non-governmental organizations and other private or public entities

can contribute to the Fund. It is important to note that only specifically earmarked

contributions are attributed to the Fund. For more information on how to contribute, and

details about the Fund, donors are requested to contact the secretariat of the United Nations

Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights, United Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland; e-mail:

unvfvt@ohchr.org; telephone: +41 22 917 9624; fax: +41 22 917 9017.

VI. Conclusions and recommendations

23. The Board called upon donors to increasetheir contributions to the Fund as

much as possible, given that it needs to attain a more satisfactory level of

contributions in order to respond to the need for assistance for victims of torture and

the members of their families worldwide.

24. The Fund would need to receive $12 million on a yearly basis in order to

respond adequately to new and emergency situations, such as those currently

unfolding in the Central African Republic, Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic and its

neighbouring countries. Contributions should be received by September 2015.

25. Contributing to the Fund is a concrete translation of the commitment of States

to the elimination of torture.