Voluntary contributions to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2025
Map of the Month 02/2026
In early February, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk presented his office's annual UN Human Rights Appeal for 2026 and warned that, in light of mounting crises, the world cannot afford a human rights system in crisis. The clear appeal was also made against the backdrop of the “financial shockwave” that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), like many other UN organizations faced in 2025. There was a funding gap of over $65 million due to both a lack of contributions from the regular UN budget and voluntary contributions from member states. Voluntary contributions amounted to $262 million, accounting for around 60% of the OHCHR's income in 2025. The EU Commission and EU member states alone contributed 60% of all voluntary contributions. Germany was the second largest donor with USD 29 million. Traditionally the United States used to be the biggest donor to the OHCHR. In 2024 it contributed 36 mio. USD. Last year, however, the voluntary contributions by the US went to zero. As a result, several human rights monitoring missions, dialogues and country visits of the Treaty Bodies or Special Rapporteurs could not take place last year. Even the investigative bodies mandated by the UN Human Rights Council were unable to fulfill their mandates fully. The office itself lost around 300 staff (out of a total of 2,000, ca. 15%) and was forced to close or radically reduce its presence in 17 countries.
Sarah Ultes
February 20, 2026
Map of the Month
Support for the 39th special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Iran and the vote on the corresponding resolution
Map of the Month 01/2026
On 23 January 2026, the UN Human Rights Council held its 39th Special Session focusing on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran after nationwide protests that broke out on 28 December 2025 had been met with a significant escalation of violence. The holding of the Special Session was officially requested on 19 January 2026 by Iceland, Germany, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It received the support of 21 Member States of the Human Rights Council and 30 Observer States. During the Session, a resolution was adopted with 25 States voting in favour, 7 against (China, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan and Viet Nam) and 14 States abstaining. It strongly deplored the violent crackdown of peaceful protests resulting in the deaths of thousands of persons, including children. It extended the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Iran for two years, and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran for one year. It also called for an urgent investigation by the FFM into allegations of recent and ongoing serious human rights violations and abuses and crimes perpetrated in relation to the protests that began on 28 December 2025, including for potential future legal proceedings.
Sarah Ultes
January 23, 2026
Map of the Month
Voting behaviour of the members of the UN Human Rights Council in line with Germany or China in 2025
Map of the Month 01/2026
The map of the month illustrates the voting behaviour of the members of the UN Human Rights Council in line with Germany or China in 2025. During the three regular sessions, 92 resolutions were adopted. Germany supported 13 of the 25 resolutions (52%) that were only adopted after a vote. Another resolution, which aimed to end the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea, was rejected by a vote. It is excluded from the overview. Bulgaria voted most often in line with Germany, closely followed by Albania, Czechia, North Macedonia and Romania. Algeria, Bangladesh, China, the DR Congo, Indonesia, Kuwait and Sudan voted with Germany only once. Of all the Central and South American Council members, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Mexico voted with Germany most often; of the African states, Malawi, Ghana, Gambia and Morocco did so.
Sarah Ultes
January 12, 2026
Map of the Month
Humanitarian aid contributions and recipients worldwide in 2025
Map of the Month 12/2025
The year 2025 was a defining year for humanitarian aid worldwide. A total of only USD 25.89 billion in funds was received. Although the United States remained the largest donor with nearly USD 3.7 billion (14.2% of all funds), it gave USD 10.5 billion less than at the same time last year. The other top 10 donors included the European Commission (12.3%), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Japan, Sweden and Canada. The 10 largest donors together contributed approximately USD 19 billion, which corresponds to almost 72% of the total amount. In addition to the US, other traditional top donor countries also cut their funding, including France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The drastic cuts forced humanitarian organisations to significantly reduce their aid to people in crisis situations. Programmes were suspended, offices closed and thousands of employees laid off. The majority of the funds went to the occupied Palestinian territories. Nevertheless, this only covered 61% of the corresponding needs, despite the officially declared famine. Other recipient countries in the top 10 included Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Lebanon. The biggest humanitarian crisis in 2025 was in Sudan, where 30.4 million people (out of a total population of 46.8 million) needed humanitarian aid. Here too, famine was declared in parts of the country last year. However, due to funding cuts, only 39% of the humanitarian aid plan was covered.
Sarah Ultes
December 31, 2025
Map of the Month
States supporting the holding of the 38th Special Session on the situation around El Fasher in Sudan
Map of the Month 11/2025
On 5 November, the United Kingdom, on behalf of 23 member states of the UN Human Rights Council and 31 observer states, requested a special session to discuss the human rights situation in and around El Fasher in connection with the ongoing conflict in Sudan. The map shows the countries that supported the special session either as members or as observers. During the 38th special session, held on 14 November, the Council adopted a resolution without a vote in which it strongly condemned the reports of atrocities, expressed alarm at the presence of famine conditions and requested the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the Sudan to conduct an urgent inquiry into the recent alleged violations of international law committed in and around El Fasher. In addition, the FFM was tasked to identify, where possible, all those for whom there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are responsible. The resolution also condemned all forms of external interference and reminded to respect the existing arms embargo to Darfur.
Sarah Ultes
November 14, 2025
Map of the Month
Support for global initiative for international humanitarian law (IHL), to upholding humanity in war
Map of the Month 10/2025
In September 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) together with six founding states, namely Brazil, France, China, Jordan, Kazakhstan and South Africa launched a global initiative to galvanise political commitment to international humanitarian law (IHL) which shall culminate with a High-Level Meeting to Uphold Humanity in War in 2026. Following several rounds of global and regional consultations over the past year in which more than 130 states have participated, the ICRC on 16 October 2025 launched the initiative’s progress report in Geneva which summarises concrete proposals from the states on how to strengthen the respect for IHL, including by updated military training, stronger national accountability mechanisms or by identifying risk factors that heighten the likelihood of violations. As of end-October, 93 states have joined the initiative, including the six founding members and the 27 co-chairs for thematic work streams. As one of the co-chairs, Germany is helping to explore how national IHL committees can be bolstered to further support their governments to fulfil their IHL obligations.
Sarah Ultes
October 31, 2025
Map of the Month
Key results of the 60th UN Human Rights Council and new composition of the Council in 2026
Map of the Month 10/2025
During the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council that convened in Geneva from 8 September to 8 October 2025, a total of 37 texts were adopted, 30 of them (81%) by consensus. These included, for the first time, the establishment of an Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan, which many observers considered long overdue. The mechanism was tasked with collecting, consolidating, preserving and analysing evidence of international crimes and violations of international law committed in Afghanistan, including against women and girls, as well as identifying perpetrators. Further resolutions were adopted on the Russian Federation, Sudan and Burundi, among others. More than 95 reports were considered during the session, including the latest report by the UN Secretary-General on reprisals and intimidation against individuals who cooperate or have cooperated with the UN, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights. On 14 October, the UN General Assembly also elected 11 new members and re-elected 3 members to the Council for the 2026-2028 term. This year’s elections have been the fifth, totally uncompetitive elections since the first HRC elections took place in 2007. Thus, all regional groups pre-selected the exact number of states for the vacant seats. As a result, five candidates (Egypt, India, Iraq, Pakistan and Vietnam) made it onto the Council, all of which were also mentioned in the UN Secretary-General's latest report on reprisals.
Sarah Ultes
October 15, 2025
Map of the Month
Proliferation of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in WHO regions
Map of the Month 10/2025
The WHO Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025 presents the most comprehensive global analysis to date of the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The report reveals that in 2023, one in six bacterial infections no longer responded to antibiotics, with resistance increasing in over 40% of monitored pathogen–antibiotic combinations since 2018. Resistance was most prevalent in urinary tract and bloodstream infections, while it occurred less frequently in gastrointestinal and urogenital infections. The South-East Asia, African, and Eastern Mediterranean regions were the most affected. To confront the growing threat of AMR, WHO urges all countries to strengthen laboratory capacity, produce reliable surveillance data, and report high-quality information on resistance and antibiotic use to GLASS by 2030.
Lindgard Buder
October 14, 2025
Map of the Month
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About this series
The "Map of the Month", a new series of the Multilateral Dialogue Geneva of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, uses maps to illustrate global trends and the role of Germany and Europe in the world on a monthly basis.
