COUNCIL CONCLUDES SPECIAL SESSION ON SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN SYRIA, ESTABLISHES MANDATE OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR SYRIA

The Human Rights Council this afternoon adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic in which it established a mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic. The resolution came at the end of a Special Session, the third to be held on Syria this year.

In the resolution, adopted by 37 votes in favour, 4 votes against and 6 abstentions, the Human Rights Council strongly condemned the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities. The Human Rights Council recommended that the main bodies of the United Nations urgently consider the report of the Commission of Inquiry and take appropriate action. It called upon the Syrian authorities to fully cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner, including through the establishment of a field presence in the Syrian Arab Republic. It decided to establish a mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, once the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry ends, to monitor the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as to monitor the implementation of the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry addressed to the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic and of the Human Rights Council's resolutions on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic and called upon the Syrian Government to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur.


The full resolution, translated into the six official UN languages, will be available on the Human Rights Council webpage by Tuesday 6 December 2011.


The next regular session of the Human Rights Council will be held from 27 February to 23 March 2012 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.


For use of the information media; not an official record

HRC11/145E