Minority rights focus in the United Nations 9 • Coordinate United Nations human rights education and public information programmes; • Play an active role in removing obstacles to the realization of human rights and preventing the continuation of human rights violations; • Engage in dialogue with Governments in order to help secure respect for all human rights; • Enhance international cooperation; • Coordinate human rights promotion and protection activities throughout the United Nations system; • Rationalize, adapt, strengthen and streamline the United Nations human rights machinery.14 OHCHR focuses its work on: • Standard-setting – contributing to the development of international norms to advance human rights protection and entitlement; • Monitoring – ensuring that these standards are implemented in practice; • Implementation – identifying early-warning signs of human rights crises and deteriorating situations and, where possible, offering technical assistance to Governments, and deploying staff and resources, to contribute to the prevention and addressing of human rights violations. OHCHR Management Plan 2012-2013: Working for Results highlights minority issues through one of its thematic priorities, countering discrimination.15 OHCHR places this priority at the heart of its continued advocacy, technical assistance and capacity-building work. The work of OHCHR is based on dialogue and cooperation with Governments, legislatures, courts, national institutions and civil society, with regional and international organizations, and within the United Nations system itself. Its work on minority issues encompasses: • Technical support to Governments; • Capacity-building for Government officials and non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives and other minority rights advocates; • Substantive work which contributes to international minority rights standard-setting; • Mainstreaming and advancing the promotion and protection of minority rights throughout the United Nations system and in the field; • Cooperating with all relevant stakeholders, including providing a platform for the exchange of experience and information (the Forum on Minority Issues, discussed in chap. III). The structure of OHCHR is illustrated in figure I. OHCHR provides substantive and secretariat support to the various United Nations human rights bodies (described in detail in chaps. III-V) as they fulfil their standard-setting and monitoring duties. The Human Rights Council Branch serves as the Secretariat of the Human Rights Council and a number of its mechanisms. The Council is the key United Nations intergovernmental body responsible for human rights. It addresses violations, reviews States’ human rights records, works to prevent human rights abuses, responds to emergencies, serves as an international For the formal mandate, see General Assembly resolution 48/141. 14 See www2.ohchr.org/english/ohchrreport2011/web_version/ohchr_mp_2012_2013_web_en/index.html#/ home (accessed 29 November 2012). 15