14 PROMOTING AND PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS human rights training and technical advice to the judiciary, parliament, police and the military, for example. Field presences also provide advice to national counterparts on cooperation with United Nations human rights mechanisms – treaty bodies, special procedures and the universal periodic review. OHCHR also develops programmes for human rights education and conducts capacity-building within civil society, from which minority rights advocates can also benefit. There are four types of human rights field presences: OHCHR country offices, OHCHR regional offices, human rights components of peace missions and human rights advisers to United Nations country teams. In addition, OHCHR deploys rapid-response missions in response to emerging human rights crises (see fig. II), by providing surge capacity to human rights field presences when requested to support United Nations Resident Coordinators (see below), or technical and logistical support to missions mandated by the Human Rights Council or the Secretary-General. Country offices OHCHR country offices are established by agreement with the host Government. They reflect the mandate of the High Commissioner, including human rights observation, protection, technical cooperation and public reporting. Persons belonging to minorities or minority groups can submit information about alleged human rights violations to a country office. While no particular form is required, the special procedures model questionnaires provide guidance and assistance in the preparation of communications.24 A letter or other communication containing sufficiently detailed and verified information, together with the name and contact details of the sender, should suffice in the first instance. Depending on the relevant context and available mechanisms for redress in a given country or situation, the country office may take action by, for example: • Advising the complainant(s) on redress available domestically and/or transmitting the complaint to the competent national authorities; • Informing the authorities and formulating recommendations on concrete measures which might be adopted in a particular case or cases, when, in the opinion of the office, the national procedures do not provide effective redress; • Making recommendations to the national authorities for protection measures for victims and witnesses of human rights violation(s) (although the office is not a prosecuting body and does not substitute for the State in its obligation to investigate human rights violations); • Assisting with the referral of complaints to appropriate United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms; • Referring the complainant(s) to non-governmental support groups, welfare organizations, hotlines, etc.; • Directly addressing individual cases in meetings and discussions with Government representatives. Country offices also support States in following up the recommendations of special procedures and treaty bodies, and on matters relating to the universal periodic review. They organize awarenessraising and training activities, and provide technical advice, in support of the submission of NGO or shadow reports to treaty bodies, specific information and reports to the Special Procedures Branch, and civil society stakeholder submissions during the universal periodic review process. Organizations working on minority issues can benefit from such activities. See www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/QuestionnairesforsubmittingInfo.aspx (accessed 29 November 2012). 24