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7/35. Assistance to Somalia in the field of human rights

78. Under the terms of paragraphs 9, 10 and 11 of its resolution 7/35, the Council:

(a) Decided to renew the mandate of the independent expert for a period of one year, with a view to maximizing the provision and the flow of technical assistance to Somalia in the field of human rights, and requested him/her to submit a report to the Council in September 2008 and March 2009;

(b) Requested the Secretary-General to provide the independent expert with all necessary human, technical and financial assistance in carrying out his/her mandate;

(c) Requested OHCHR to strengthen its presence in Somalia with a view to providing technical assistance and advisory services to the relevant Somali institutions.

79. Pursuant to the adoption of the resolution by the Council, a total amount of $58,200 per year will be required to implement the activities called for in operative paragraph 9 as follows:

(a) Travel of the independent expert for consultations/to attend the annual meeting of special procedures and to present a report to the Council, as well as for two field missions ($31,300);

(b) Travel of staff to accompany the independent expert during field missions ($9,700);

(c) Local transportation, security, communications and other miscellaneous expenses during field missions ($17,200).

80. The requirements to implement the activities for the mandate of the independent expert have been included under section 23, Human Rights, of the programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009; hence, no additional appropriations will be required to implement the activities envisaged under paragraph 9 pursuant to the adoption of the resolution.

81. With respect to operative paragraph 11, pursuant to the adoption of the resolution by the Council, a total additional requirement of $607,000 per year under section 23, Human Rights, will be required to implement the activities, as follows:

(a) Staff costs for one P-4, one P-3 and two national level staff ($418,000);

(b) Operational costs including rental and maintenance of premises, supplies, furniture and equipment, communications, travel within Somalia, local transportation, security and miscellaneous for presence in Somalia ($89,000);

(c) Technical assistance and advisory services consisting of training for the relevant Somali institutions ($100,000).

82. The requirements for activities envisaged under paragraph 11 outlined above have not been included under section 23, Human Rights, of the programme budget for the biennium 2008 2009. Although it is anticipated that an additional amount of $1,214,000 would be required for the biennium 2008-2009, under section 23, as a result of the adoption of the resolution, a preliminary review leads the Secretariat to assume that some absorption of the estimated requirements is possible. The Secretariat will seek to identify areas from which resources can be redeployed to meet the requirements in the biennium 2008-2009. At the time, the General Assembly reviews the question of the revised estimates resulting from decisions made by the Council at its seventh session, it is anticipated that the Secretariat would be in a position to inform the Assembly on how costs for the additional requirements could be met.

83. With regard to paragraph 10, attention is drawn to the provisions of section VI of General Assembly resolution 45/248 B, and subsequent resolutions, the most recent of which is resolution 62/236, in which the Assembly reaffirmed that the Fifth Committee was the appropriate Main Committee of the Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters and reaffirmed the role of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.