Conference Concludes Second Half of 2006 Session After Hearing General Statements, Including by the Incoming President The Conference on Disarmament today heard renewed calls to allow representatives of civil society to participate directly in its work at the last plenary of the second part of…

Members Call for Greater Involvement of and Coordination with Office of the High Commissioner and Special Procedures in Work of Council The Human Rights Council this morning discussed its programme of work for its future sessions and debated the issue of dialogue and cooperation on human rights…

The Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission, under the Presidency of Ambassador Tassos Kriekoukis (Greece), has today concluded its sixtieth session. Representatives of Kuwait, Iraq, and India addressed the fifteen-member Governing Council at its opening plenary…

Extends Mandate of Working Group on Drafting Optional Protocol to International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The Human Rights Council this afternoon adopted by consensus the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and recommended…

The Human Rights Council this morning discussed how to set up the modalities of the universal periodic review mechanism, which would periodically review the situation of human rights in all countries, hearing delegations proposing the creation of a working group to design the modalities.…

Speakers Urge Extension of Mandates of Special Procedures for One Year Pending Examination in an Inter-Sessional Working Group The Human Rights Council this afternoon discussed the review of the mandates and mechanisms which it inherited from the former Commission on Human Rights. In the…

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization…

Speakers Urge Council to Approve the Draft Convention The Human Rights Council in a midday meeting concluded its discussion on the report of the Working Group to elaborate a draft legally binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance. Speakers said…

Speakers Divided on Question of Adoption of Draft Declaration The Human Rights Council this afternoon discussed the report of the Working Group on a draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, remaining divided over adopting the draft Declaration or continuing to…

The Fourteenth Session of the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) concluded on Friday, 23…