HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL HOLDS ITS TWENTY-EIGHTH REGULAR SESSION FROM 2 to 27 MARCH 2015

The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold its twenty-eighth regular session from 2 to 27 March 2015 in the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein will open the session, commencing a four-day High-Level Segment during which senior dignitaries will address the 47-member Council on human rights matters of national interest and concern.

Highlights of the four-week session include presentations by the independent Commissions of Inquiry on Syria, Eritrea and the 2014 Gaza Conflict. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will present a report on the human rights situation in Iraq in light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated terrorist groups. A high level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming, and a full-day discussion on the impact of climate change on human rights will take place in the opening week. The subjects of other significant meetings include the death penalty, the rights of the child, national policies and human rights and technical cooperation. The human rights situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Myanmar, the occupied Palestinian territories, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti and Mali will also be discussed.

Click here for the detailed agenda. Reports for the twenty-eighth session can be found here, and other information can be found on the homepage of the Human Rights Council website.

Week One of the Session

The session will be opened by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein who will present his first annual report on activities undertaken by his Office in 2014 at noon on Thursday, 5 March, followed by an interactive dialogue. A four-day High-Level Segment will take place in the first week, during which senior dignitaries will address the 47-member Council on human rights matters of national interest and concern.

On Tuesday, 3 March the Annual High-Level Panel Discussion on Human Rights Mainstreaming will take place from 9 a.m., and the Biennial High-Level Panel Discussion on the Question of the Death Penalty is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 4 March. The Human Rights Council’s first Full-Day Discussion on Human Rights and Climate Change will take place from 9 a.m. on Friday, 6 March.

Week Two of the Session

The second week of the session, starting on Monday, 9 March, features three clustered interactive dialogues. The first starts at 9 a.m. with the Independent Experts on human rights and the environment and on foreign debt. The second is at 12 p.m. with the Special Rapporteurs on the right to food and on adequate housing, and the third begins at 3 p.m. with the Special Rapporteurs on torture and on human rights defenders. At 12 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 March there will be a clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion or belief and on counter-terrorism. At 3 p.m. the Council will hold its annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities, and on the following day will also hear from the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of persons with disabilities.

Also on Wednesday, 11 March, at 12 p.m. the Council will hold a clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteurs on cultural rights and on the sale of children. At 3 p.m. that afternoon the Council will hear from the Special Representatives of the United Nations Secretary-General on violence against children, and on children in armed conflict. The annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child is scheduled for Thursday, 12 March. The presentation of thematic reports of the High Commissioner and the United Nations Secretary-General, followed by a general debate, takes place on Friday, 13 March.

Week Three of the Session

An interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is scheduled for the start of the third week, at 9 a.m. on Monday, 16 March, to be followed by an oral update from the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea. That afternoon the Council hears from the Special Rapporteurs on Iran and on Myanmar. On Tuesday, 17 March the Commission of Inquiry on Syria presents its new report to the Council, followed by an interactive discussion. The Council holds an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on minority issues in the morning of Wednesday, 18 March and hears the report of the Forum on Minority Issues, followed by a general debate.

A Panel Discussion on National Policies and Human Rights takes place at 12 p.m. on Thursday, 19 March and a debate on the global issue of racial discrimination has been scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday, 20 March. The rest of the third week will be taken up with consideration of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcomes for the following States reviewed at the UPR Working Group’s session last year (in order of review): Italy, El Salvador, Gambia, Bolivia, Fiji, San Marino, Kazakhstan, Angola, Iran, Iraq, Madagascar, Slovenia, Egypt and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Week Four of the Session

The fourth week of the session starts at 9 a.m. on Friday, 23 March with a presentation from the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict and the Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Later that day the Council will be presented with the reports of the High Commissioner and Secretary-General, followed by a general debate on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories. In the afternoon the Council will hold a general debate on follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.

At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, 24 March the report of the Ad Hoc Committee will be presented, followed by a general debate on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Later that day the Council will hear an oral update from the Independent Expert on the Central African Republic, and hold interactive dialogues with the Independent Experts on Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti and Mali.

The Council’s annual thematic discussion on technical cooperation takes place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 25 March. That afternoon the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will present its report on the human rights situation in Iraq as mandated by the Council at its Special Session on 1 September last year addressing abuses committed by the Islamic State. There will also be a presentation of a series of country-specific reports covering human rights situations in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Colombia, Cyprus, Guatemala, Guinea, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Libya and South Sudan. On Thursday and Friday, 26 and 27 March, the Council will take action on the draft resolutions and decisions tabled during the session. The session will conclude on Friday, 27 March after the President of the Council has appointed expert mandate holders under special procedures to fill four vacancies.

The Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States which are responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe. The Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 March 2006 with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them.

The composition of the Council at its twenty-eighth session is of the following 47 countries: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Botswana, Brazil, China, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Maldives, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sierra , Leone, South Africa, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Viet Nam.

The new President of the Human Rights Council is Joachim Rücker, Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations Office at Geneva, who took up the post on 1 January 2015. The Council’s four Vice Presidents are Filloreta Kodra of Albania, Juan Esteban Aguirre Martinez of Paraguay, Mukhtar Tileuberdi of Kazakhstan and Mothusi Bruce Rabasha Palai of Botswana. Rabasha Palai of Botswana is the Rapporteur of the Council.

For further information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gomez (+ 41.22.917.9711 / rgomez@ohchr.org)

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For use of the information media; not an official record

HRC15/008E