Council Opens Eleventh Regular Session The Human Rights Council this morning opened its eleventh session by adopting its agenda and holding an interactive dialogue with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business…

Council Hears from the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights of Sri Lanka; Concludes Interactive Dialogue on Transnational Corporations, Education and Migrants The Human Rights Council this afternoon heard the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Special…

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the World…

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today reviewed the initial reports of Slovenia on how that country is implementing the provisions of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child…

After 12 years pf stalemate, the Conference on Disarmament this morning adopted by consensus document CD/1863, which contains a programme of work. Dozens of delegations took the floor to laude this historical moment, which had saved the world’s sole multilateral for disarmament negotiations.…

At its plenary meeting today, under the Presidency of Ambassador Jazaïry (Algeria), the Conference on Disarmament adopted, by consensus, its Programme of Work for 2009. This action has ended over ten years of efforts to resume the substantive work of the Conference, which came to a hold in 1999…

At the Conference on Disarmament this morning Ireland, Italy, India, Bulgaria, Iraq, Belarus and Mexico joined the growing consensus around document CD/1863 by expressing their support for the proposed programme of work. Ireland saw CD/1863 as a realistic, practical proposal capable of finally…

The Human Rights Council will hold its eleventh regular session from 2 to 18 June 2009 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Under its agenda item on the annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) and the…

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today reviewed the second periodic report of Mauritania on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Introducing the report, Mohamed Ould Ely Telmoudy, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Social Affairs,…

Divisions Remain on Approach to Take in Dealing with the Crisis The Human Rights Council this morning continued its eleventh Special Session on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, with speakers again expressing divergent views on the approach which should be taken towards Sri Lanka in the…