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	Working with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: A Handbook for NGOs by ReliefWeb   The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the United Nations office with primary responsibility for promoting and protecting the enjoyment and full realization of human rights for all.   Civil society, especially non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has been crucial in the process of defining and realizing human rights throughout the world. Playing a multiplicity of roles, NGOs are helping to build, drive and strengthen the international human rights system.   The effectiveness of the work of OHCHR depends on the collection and dissemination of accurate information, and NGOs are a valuable link between the grass roots and the national and international levels of action.   OHCHR provides and supports mechanisms that are able to respond to human rights concerns highlighted by NGOs. It also provides tools, standards and frameworks that NGOs can use to further human rights within their own areas of work.   This Handbook aims to facilitate the participation of NGOs as essential partners in the United Nations human rights system and to guide their interaction with OHCHR. Visit the related web page
	UN unit calls for follow-up on justice in rampant assassinations of journalists by UNESCO   April 2008   With only 6.7 per cent of journalists’ murders leading to convictions, an arm of the United Nations agency mandated to protect freedom of the press is calling on Governments to report on investigations into attacks on media personnel, which have surged in recent years.   The Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) will request UN Member States to assume responsibility for monitoring investigations into all killings condemned by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).   As a result of its meeting in Paris from 26 to 28 March, the IPDC, which was created by UNESCO in 1980 to promote free expression in developing countries, also decided to ask all States to inform UNESCO of actions taken in each case, and of the status of judicial inquires.   Over the past two years, the Director-General of UNESCO has publicly condemned the killings of 121 journalists – 68 in 2006 and 53 in 2007.   The decision adopted by all 39 IPDC Council members requests the Director-General of UNESCO to provide updated information on the responses received from Member States in which assassinations of journalists have occurred, and to make this report widely available.
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