9
their members genuinely involved in the field of human rights should enjoy the rights and freedoms
recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the protection of the national law. These
rights and freedoms may not be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United
Nations. Non-governmental organizations should be free to carry out their human rights activities,
without interference, within the framework of national law and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
39. Underlining the importance of objective, responsible and impartial information about human rights
and humanitarian issues, the World Conference on Human Rights encourages the increased
involvement of the media, for whom freedom and protection should be guaranteed within the
framework of national law.
II
A. Increased coordination on human rights within the United Nations system
1. The World Conference on Human Rights recommends increased coordination in support of human
rights and fundamental freedoms within the United Nations system. To this end, the World Conference
on Human Rights urges all United Nations organs, bodies and the specialized agencies whose activities
deal with human rights to cooperate in order to strengthen, rationalize and streamline their activities,
taking into account the need to avoid unnecessary duplication. The World Conference on Human Rights
also recommends to the Secretary-General that high-level officials of relevant United Nations bodies
and specialized agencies at their annual meeting, besides coordinating their activities, also assess the
impact of their strategies and policies on the enjoyment of all human rights.
2. Furthermore, the World Conference on Human Rights calls on regional organizations and prominent
international and regional finance and development institutions to assess also the impact of their
policies and programmes on the enjoyment of human rights.
3. The World Conference on Human Rights recognizes that relevant specialized agencies and bodies
and institutions of the United Nations system as well as other relevant intergovernmental organizations
whose activities deal with human rights play a vital role in the formulation, promotion and
implementation of human rights standards, within their respective mandates, and should take into
account the outcome of the World Conference on Human Rights within their fields of competence.
4. The World Conference on Human Rights strongly recommends that a concerted effort be made to
encourage and facilitate the ratification of and accession or succession to international human rights
treaties and protocols adopted within the framework of the United Nations system with the aim of
universal acceptance. The Secretary-General, in consultation with treaty bodies, should consider
opening a dialogue with States not having acceded to these human rights treaties, in order to identify
obstacles and to seek ways of overcoming them.
5. The World Conference on Human Rights encourages States to consider limiting the extent of any
reservations they lodge to international human rights instruments, formulate any reservations as
precisely and narrowly as possible, ensure that none is incompatible with the object and purpose of the
relevant treaty and regularly review any reservations with a view to withdrawing them.
6. The World Conference on Human Rights, recognizing the need to maintain consistency with the high
quality of existing international standards and to avoid proliferation of human rights instruments,
reaffirms the guidelines relating to the elaboration of new international instruments contained in
General Assembly resolution 41/120 of 4 December 1986 and calls on the United Nations human rights
bodies, when considering the elaboration of new international standards, to keep those guidelines in
mind, to consult with human rights treaty bodies on the necessity for drafting new standards and to
request the Secretariat to carry out technical reviews of proposed new instruments.
7. The World Conference on Human Rights recommends that human rights officers be assigned if and
when necessary to regional offices of the United Nations Organization with the purpose of
disseminating information and offering training and other technical assistance in the field of human