Special Session of Human Rights Council on Haiti calls for continued support for Haiti and importance of integrating a human rights approach

The Human Rights Council today concluded its Special Session, on “The Support of the Human Rights Council to the Recovery Process in Haiti after the Earthquake of January 12, 2010: a Human Rights Approach”.

The resolution adopted by the Council called upon the international community to continue to ensure adequate and coordinated support to the Government and the people of Haiti in their efforts to overcome the challenges arising from the earthquake, keeping in mind the importance of integrating a human-rights approach. It expressed its concern about the present human rights situation in Haiti, in particular the vulnerable situation of children, women, internally displaced persons, the elderly, persons with disabilities and wounded.

The Council also decided to act favourably, in view of the exceptional circumstances that confront it, upon the request of Haiti, to postpone relevant deadlines related to its Universal Periodic Review within the Human Rights Council to a date no later than December 2011. It invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to identify areas for cooperation and technical assistance with Haiti, on the basis of the expertise and the presence of the United Nations system on the ground, in particular the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in collaboration with Special Procedures, a view to present suggestions in this regard to the Human Rights Council in its fourteenth regular session.

The Special Session, which began on Wednesday 27 January, was the thirteenth Special Session of the Human Rights Council. The Council’s previous Special Sessions related to grave human rights violations in the Gaza Strip; the Occupied Palestinian Territories; Lebanon; Darfur; Myanmar; the Global Food Crisis; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the Global Financial and Economic Crises and Sri Lanka.

The thirteenth regular session of the Human Rights Council will be held from 1 to 26 March 2010.

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For use of the information media; not an official record