nity. For this reason, the United Nations has increasingly emphasized the right to development, which can provide the basis for a strategy for a more comprehensive human rights programme.Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsMs. Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, assumed her post as the second High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 1997. The High Commissioner's mandate has four essential components: Building global partnerships for human rights; Preventing human rights violations and responding to emergencies; Promoting human rights, together with democracy and development, as the guiding principles for lasting peace; and Coordinating the system-wide strengthening of the United Nations human rights programme. Commission on Human RightsUnited Nations policy on human rights is governed, through the General Assembly, by a number of intergovernmental bodies, which also provide guidance to OHCHR. The main intergovernmental policy-making body concerned with human rights issues is the Commission on Human Rights. Established in 1946 by the Economic and Social Council, the Commission provides overall policy guidance, studies human rights problems, develops and codifies new international norms, and monitors the observance of human rights around the world. Made up of 53 Member States elected for three-year terms, the Commission provides a forum for States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to voice their concerns about human rights issues.The Commission originally concentrated its efforts on defining and codifying international human rights standards. In the past two decades, however, the Commission has set up a system of special procedures to investigate alleged violations of human rights, and routinely dispatches fact-finding missions to countries in all parts of the world. Today, the Commission's annual six-week session in Geneva provi...
