Human Rights Adviser in Ecuador

Background

OHCHR deployed a Human Rights Adviser (HRA) to the UN Resident Coordinator and UN Country Team (UNCT) in Ecuador in May 2007, with the aim of assisting the UNCT in implementing capacity-building projects on human rights in the judiciary and supporting the UNCT on human rights-based programming. Although the initial mandate focused on supporting the judiciary and later the constitutional reform process, since 2010, the HRA has also prioritized working on mainstreaming human rights in the Government-led national planning development process.

The thematic priorities of the Human Rights Adviser are: countering discrimination; the protection of human rights in development and in the economic sphere; combating impunity, strengthening accountability and the rule of law; and strengthening the effectiveness of international human rights mechanisms and the progressive development on international human rights law. 

Activities

The Human Rights Advisor carries out the following activities to advance this strategy:

1. Countering discrimination:The HRA works with the Ombudsman’s Office, the Ministry of Defence, the National Police, the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court in order to promote their level of compliance with international human rights standards on collective rights and diversity.
   
   
2. Human rights in development and in the economic sphere: The HRA supports relevant duty-bearers in fostering public policies on economic, social and cultural rights which are monitored and evaluated in line with international human rights standards and based on broad participation of right-holders, including prior consultation with indigenous people in the context of economic development projects. In this area, it is worthwhile to mention the HRA’s support to the National Secretariat for Planning and Development (SENPLADES) through the provision of technical advice on the integration of human rights to planning and development policies, which includes support to relevant government initiatives, such as the development of a methodology for the formulation of sector-specific public policies, the integration of human rights norms into the national development plan and the elaboration of an Inequalities Atlas.
   
   
3. Combating impunity, strengthening accountability and rule of law,mainly through specialized human rights training addressed to judicial actors.
   
   
4. Strengthening the effectiveness of international human rights mechanismsthrough support for the establishment of a national mechanism to coordinate reporting and implementation of recommendations of international human rights mechanisms; as well as to foster greater engagement of rights holders and the UNCT with international mechanisms. In this area, the HRA is also implementing a project with the Ministry of Justice for the establishment of a human rights indicators database (SIDERECHOS), which could be used as a tool to facilitate data collection and the elaboration of reports to meet with UN reporting obligations