In 2008, the final year of the ‘Consolidating the Profession: The Human Rights Field Officer’, the project’s key research and training outputs will be finalised and disseminated.

Within Track One – the research track - this will include research papers on the following four topics, which were identified by participants at the Third Expert Consultation as areas in need of urgent attention:

The role of the HRFO in partnership for promotion of economic, social, and cultural rights

The role of the HRFO in partnership for responses to terrorism

The role of the HRFO in partnership for criminal justice  

The Professional Development of the HRFO

Expert practitioners are generating in-depth research papers that will assess the current state of practice, analyse strengths and weaknesses, identify and review critical legal and operational aspects, highlight good practices, and conclude with recommendations to improve the training and practice of HRFOs within each theme.   

The Fourth Expert Consultation on Human Rights Fieldwork will be convened to review and discuss project outputs. During a high-level segment of the Consultation the finalised Guiding Principles for Human Rights Field Officers, including the Statement of Ethical Commitments of Human Rights Professionals, will be presented to representatives of the major HRFO-deploying organisations and other relevant actors. The Fourth Expert Consultation is provisionally scheduled to take place on 3 – 4 July in Geneva. 

The Final Report on the Fourth Expert Consultation is available here.

Research papers produced in the final year of the project, on the topics indicated above, and reviewed at the Fourth Expert Consultation are available here .

Within Track Two – the training track – training modules developed and piloted in project training activities will be reviewed, finalised, and presented to the major HRFO-deploying agencies, with a view to improving the recruitment, induction and training of HRFOs. The finalised training modules will be made available on this website.