High Commissioner
<p >The <b>Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights</b> (<b>OHCHR</b>) is a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations" >United Nations</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_specialized_agencies_of_the_United_Nations" title="List of specialized agencies of the United Nations" >agency</a> that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights" title="Universal Declaration of Human Rights" >Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> of 1948. The office was established by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly" title="United Nations General Assembly" >UN General Assembly</a> on 20 December 1993<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Human_Rights#cite_note-0" >[1]</a></sup> in the wake of the 1993 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Conference_on_Human_Rights" title="World Conference on Human Rights" >World Conference on Human Rights</a>.
The office is headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_System" title="United Nations System" >UN System</a> and supervises the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council" title="United Nations Human Rights Council" >Human Rights Council</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva" title="Geneva" >Geneva</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland" title="Switzerland" >Switzerland</a>. The current High Commissioner is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa" title="South Africa" >South African</a> lawyer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navanethem_Pillay" title="Navanethem Pillay" >Navanethem Pillay</a>, whose four-year term began on 1 September 2008.
As of 2008, the agency had a budget of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar" title="United States dollar" >US$</a>120m and 1,000 employees based in Geneva.<sup id="cite_ref-BBC-profile_1-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Human_Rights#cite_note-BBC-profile-1" >[2]</a></sup> It is an Ex-Officio member of the Committee of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Development_Group" title="United Nations Development Group" >United Nations Development Group</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Human_Rights#cite_note-2" >[3]</a></sup></p>