Human Rights Council to hold its main annual session from 1st to 26 March 2010

BACKGROUND RELEASE

25 February 2010

The Human Rights Council will hold its thirteenth regular session from 1 to 26 March at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Council's main annual session will start off with a high-level segment from 1 to 3 March, when some 70 dignitaries will address the Council on their countries’ efforts to promote and protect human rights.

As part of the High-Level Segment, the Council will undertake two thematic discussions. On the afternoon of Monday, 1 March, the Council will hold a high-level panel on the economic and financial crises, to assess their impact on the realization of all human rights worldwide, and, on the morning of Tuesday, 2 March, participants will take part in a high-level discussion on the draft Declaration on human rights education and training.

Following its high-level segment, the Council will hold an interactive dialogue with Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, after she presents the annual report of the activities of her Office.

During the session, the Council will hear presentations from independent human rights experts on numerous topics, including the right to food; adequate housing; protection of human rights while countering terrorism; torture, forced disappearances; detention; human rights defenders; freedom of religion or belief; and minorities.

Mandate holders on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and in Myanmar will also present their reports. After the presentation of each Special Rapporteur report, an interactive dialogue with the mandate holder will be held with Member States of the Council, observer States and non-governmental organizations. The situation of human rights in Somalia and on technical assistance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be taken up under the agenda item on technical assistance and capacity-building.

During the session, the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children will engage in an interactive dialogue with the participants. The Council will also hold an interactive discussion with the Working Group of Experts on African Descent and the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.

Other events, which the Council will undertake, include a panel discussion on the right to the truth, an annual day on the rights of the child, and an annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities. It will also consider the reports of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee and the Social Forum and discuss follow-up to its Special Sessions on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In the third week of its session, the Council will consider the final outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Eritrea, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Norway, Albania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Portugal, Bhutan, Dominica , the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, and Ethiopia, whose human rights records were reviewed during the sixth session of the UPR Working Group in November and December 2009.

Also during the session, the Council will discuss in private the report of the Working Group on Situations of its Complaint Procedure; appoint one new member each to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on People of African Descent; and elect seven new members of the Council’s Advisory Committee.

For more detailed information about the work of the Council at this session, including with regard to documentation, please refer to the annotated agenda of the session A/HRC/13/1, as well as the Human Rights Council website at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/13session/.

Composition of the Council

The Council is made up of the following 47 Member States. The mandates conclude on 18 June of the year indicated between parentheses. The Member States are: Angola (2010); Argentina (2011); Bahrain (2011); Bangladesh (2012); Belgium (2012); Bolivia (2010); Bosnia and Herzegovina (2010); Brazil (2011); Burkina Faso (2011); Cameroon (2012); Chile (2011); China (2012); Cuba (2012); Djibouti (2012); Egypt (2010); France (2011); Gabon (2011); Ghana (2011); Hungary (2012); India (2010); Indonesia (2010); Italy (2010); Japan (2011); Jordan (2012); Kyrgyzstan (2012); Madagascar (2010); Mauritius (2012); Mexico (2012); Netherlands (2010); Nicaragua (2010); Nigeria (2012); Norway (2012); Pakistan (2011); Philippines (2010); Qatar (2010); Republic of Korea (2011); Russian Federation (2012); Saudi Arabia (2012); Senegal (2012); Slovakia (2011); Slovenia (2010); South Africa (2010); Ukraine (2011); United Kingdom (2011); United States (2012); Uruguay (2012); and Zambia (2011).

The President of the Council is Alex Van Meeuwen (Belgium); Vice-Presidents are Dian Triansyah Djani (Indonesia), Carlos Portales (Chile) and Andrej Logar (Slovenia); and the Vice-President and Rapporteur is Hisham Badr (Egypt).

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For use of the information media; not an official record