U.N.'S OHCHR SPREAD THINLY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 000223 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SA SUBJECT: U.N.'S OHCHR SPREAD THINLY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA REF: STATE 02023 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (U) On January 20, poloff met with the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) Resident Representative for Southern Africa David Johnson, in response to Department tasker (reftel) to assess the nature and scope of OHCHR's activities. Covering 14 countries with two professional staff, the office is mainly focused on technical support to national human rights commissions, alongside continual observer missions to Zimbabwe, and with no activity in South Africa itself. End Summary. -------------- Two Officers, 14 Countries -------------- ¶2. (U) OHCHR's Pretoria office is small, with only two professionals covering 14 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),except the Congo and including Indian Ocean nations. A longtime U.N. veteran, its senior officer and Regional Representative David Johnson himself launched this regional headquarters in 2000, the first of OHCHR's regional operations worldwide. With the Angola office closed last year, there are now no country offices in the region, and all are managed directly from Pretoria by Johnson and his colleague. Their budget is on the order of $665,000 a year, but Johnson said he may seek earmarks for further funding to double his professional staff to four. -------------- Capacity Building, and Zimbabwe -------------- ¶3. (U) Johnson's focus is more programmatic than on policy reporting, mainly providing technical assistance to build institutional capacity within regional states. The office was established without a contractual monitoring mandate (stipulating unlimited free movement; and unfettered access to information, facilities, and officials) from the host South African government (SAG),and hence its reporting role is mainly a very broad one, of generally staying abreast of country issues. Not only would the SAG never sign on to a formal monitoring arrangement, acknowledged Johnson, but there was no need, since the SAG itself had an independent inspectorate on rights issues. The exception on reporting is Zimbabwe, which is the one priority reporting focus for OHCHR in the region. Alongside Zimbabwe, the office's other main area of work is a 'grab bag' of initiatives promoting national human rights commissions in member states. -------------- Zimbabwe: Observation, and Indirect Appeals -------------- ¶4. (U) Zimbabwe is the OHCHR's main concern in the region, where it does conduct continual monitoring since, in Johnson's words, the country is "a case of life or death." Johnson and his colleagues make frequent visits to Zimbabwe to meet with public defenders, civil society groups, and other counterparts on ongoing human rights abuses there. Visits are transparently declared and allowed by the GOZ. The regional office does not publicize or disseminate its findings directly, but rather feeds information through the conduits of U.N. topical rapporteurs and special mandate holders, who can then launch appeals to the GOZ. In 2008, three or four public statements were made in this way, while the High Commissioner in Geneva made two in the last year, with a third pending soon. (Note: on the rights monitoring front, Johnson personally felt Swaziland merited attention Qfront, Johnson personally felt Swaziland merited attention second only to that on Zimbabwe, but he said that country was not in practice a major focus area. End Note.) -------------- Regional Assistance Projects -------------- ¶5. (U) Apart from Zimbabwean emergency, the office's main focus is on institutional capacity building. Its main counterparts in the 14 countries (Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, PRETORIA 00000223 002 OF 003 South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) are governments, civil society organizations, as well as regional institutions such as SADC and SADC-affiliated groups (e.g. police commissioners, law reform commissions, or chief justices). OHCHR gravitates to receptive countries where it can form suitable partnerships. Training and workshops are conducted, for example, in various countries where the UN Development Program (UNDP) has active support in its governance work. Relationships have been forged by the practical problem of overdue treaty body reports, driven by member states' interests in training and assistance to catch up on reporting obligations. ¶6. (U) Technical assistance is mainly in support to human rights commissions, or aiding in their establishment. In this respect Johnson listed Mauritius, Zambia, Lesotho, and Botswana, and "to some extent in Namibia." OHCHR was "reengaging" in Malawi. In the Comoros, OHCHR was assisting in the consolidation of democracy after secessionist threats of recent years with what Johnson called the "normal menu" of establishing a human rights commission and retraining security forces. The two OHCHR officers participate in workshops run by UNDP, and by other partners, such as in a recent collaboration in Mozambique with the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID). -------------- ¶S. Africa: Office HQ, But No Projects -------------- ¶7. (U) The Pretoria office does almost no work locally in South Africa, given that country's comparatively advanced development in rights legislative frameworks, governmental watchdogs and institutions, and a vibrant civil society which Johnson rates as "world class -- so we really have little to add here." The most recent initiatives in South Africa date back to post-apartheid South Africa of the 1995-2000 period, when OHCHR provided human rights training to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and to prisons, and assisted the Department of Home Affairs (DFA) with assistance in treaty reporting. ¶8. (SBU) OHCHR interfaces occasionally with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC),but as a full-fledged partner, not in a developmental capacity. Johnson mused that the SAHRC operates in a tough environment, i.e. too often predicated on political loyalty, but it cleverly manages to push its mandate in indirect ways -- such as arranging panels on controversial subjects, or holding hearings on sensitive topics, rather than making a big noise itself. Current SAHRC commissioners' terms will end next September, opening the way for possible new approaches. -------------- Avoiding Controversy -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Johnson commented on OHCHR's own prickly and potentially precarious relationship with South Africa. After leaving on a high note in 2000, he said, he was disappointed this year to observe the SAG's "pathetic" response to xenophobic violence and the ensuing displacement of foreign migrants. Still, he said, he was unwilling to antagonize the office's host country, or jeopardize the office's presence, and so "you won't see any statements coming from here." ¶10. (SBU) Without the protection of a monitoring contract, officers could be PNG'ed by a dispute with South Africa or any other disgruntled neighbor state exerting pressure to Qany other disgruntled neighbor state exerting pressure to evict the office from Pretoria. A cautionary incident occurred when OHCHR internal plans intended for only a donor audience were published in January 2008 for the February session of the Human Rights Council, provoking strong objections from SADC members. Johnson felt the election of South African native Navi Pilay, however, would enable UNHCHR to advocate more strongly without prompting accusations of western interference in African affairs. -------------- More Information Promised -------------- ¶11. (SBU) COMMENT. This cable was held back past the January 30 due date, awaiting more detailed program information from the OHCHR office, which Johnson planned to prepare for a PRETORIA 00000223 003 OF 003 high-level visit and promised to share with Post. Should that materialize, Post will forward by email. End Comment. LA LIME