COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS TO MEET ON 20 JANUARY TO ELECT BUREAU

The Commission on Human Rights will hold a one-day meeting Monday, 20 January, to elect the bureau for its fifty-ninth session, which will take place from 17 March through 25 April 2003.
The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Room XVII of the Palais des Nations.
At each annual session, the Commission on Human Rights elects a bureau to steer its work. The bureau is made up of a chairperson, three vice-chairpersons and a rapporteur, each from one of five geographical regions (Africa; Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and Caribbean, and "Western European and Other"). For these elections, the principle of geographical rotation is followed, so that the chair is held by any given region every five years. Candidates for positions in the bureau are nominated by their regional groups; these nominations are then subject to the endorsement of the Commission.
It is the African group's turn to hold the position of chairperson during the upcoming session of the Commission.
At its 57th meeting, on 26 April 2002, the Commission on Human Rights, recalling decision 1994/297 of 29 July 1994 of the Economic and Social Council, and taking into account Council decision 1997/291 of 22 July 1997, decided, without a vote, that the first meeting of the Commission on Human Rights would henceforth be held on the third Monday in January, with the sole purpose of electing its officers. The 59th session of the Commission was then scheduled for 17 March - 25 April 2003.
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