HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL HOLDS TWENTY-SECOND REGULAR SESSION FROM 25 FEBRUARY TO 22 MARCH

The Human Rights Council will hold its twenty-second regular at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 25 February to 22 March, starting with a four-day high-level segment in which over 80 ministers and other senior dignitaries will address the Council on human rights matters of national interest and concern.

During the session, the Council will hold interactive dialogues with High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay as well as with its Special Procedures on the right to food, adequate housing, torture, human rights defenders, arbitrary detention, human rights and counter-terrorism, enforced disappearances, freedom of religion or belief, human rights and the environment, human rights and foreign debt, the sale of children, private military and security companies and minorities. The Council will also hear the presentation of reports from the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children and the Fact Finding Mission on Israeli settlements.

Interactive dialogues will also be held under the agenda item on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention with experts on Syria, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar and Iran, and under the agenda item on technical assistance and cooperation with experts on Côte d’Ivoire and Haiti.

A high-level panel on the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action will be held on the first day, as well as a panel on human rights mainstreaming on 1 March, which will include an address by Secretary-General Ban ki-moon. The annual discussion with human rights and persons with disability will be held on 6 March, the annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child on 7 March, another panel on the impact of corruption on human rights on 13 March, and the annual thematic discussion on technical cooperation on 19 March.

The Council will consider from 13 to 15 March the final outcomes of Universal Periodic Reviews undertaken on the human rights situations in Czech Republic, Argentina, Gabon, Ghana, Ukraine, Guatemala, Benin, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Pakistan, Zambia, Japan, Peru and Sri Lanka. Following its consideration of the reports, the Council is expected to officially adopt those documents, which include observations and recommendations to concretely improve the human rights situations in those countries. This will conclude with the general debate on the Universal Periodic Review.

On the first day, the President of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, and the President of the Council, Ambassador Remigiusz Achilles Henczel of Poland, will make opening remarks. The high-level segment will take place from 25 February to 28 February and it will be followed by the High Commissioner presenting her annual report and an interactive dialogue with Ms. Pillay on 28 February and 1 March. The High Commissioner and Secretary-General’s thematic reports will also be presented on 1 March.

During the week of 4 to 8 March, the Council will hold interactive dialogues with a number of its Special Procedures. On 4 March, it will meet with the Special Rapporteurs on the right to food, the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and on human rights defenders. On 5 March, it will hold interactive dialogues with the Working Group on arbitrary detention, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. Interactive dialogues will be held with the Independent Experts on human rights and the environment and on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children and the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. A general debate will be held on 7 and 8 March on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development.

On 11 March, the Council will hold interactive discussions with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. In the evening, the High Commissioner and Secretary-General’s country reports will be presented, followed by a general debate. On 12 March, the Council will hold an interactive dialogue with its Independent Expert on minorities, to be followed by the presentation of the reports of its subsidiary bodies: the Forum on Minority Issues, the Social Forum and the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.

The Council will on 18 March hold an interactive dialogue with the independent interactive fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. In the afternoon, the reports of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General under the agenda item on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories will be presented, followed by a general debate. On 19 March, general debates on the agenda items on follow-up to and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up to and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action will be held.

On 19 March in the afternoon, an interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Côte d’Ivoire will be held. And on 20 March, an interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti will be held. Also on the same day, general debates will be held on the agenda items on the annual report of the United nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary, and on technical assistance and capacity building.

The Council will hold closed meetings on its Complaint Procedure on Friday, 8 March in the afternoon and Wednesday, 20 March in the afternoon.

Before concluding its session, on 21 and 22 March, the Council will take action on the draft resolutions and decisions tabled during the session.


For use of information media; not an official record

HRC13/002E