The Human Rights Council will hold a special session to address “the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran” on Thursday, 24 November. 

The special session will start at 10 a.m. in room XX at the Palais des Nations.  The meeting is open to the media and will be webcast live on webtv.un.org

The special session is being convened following an official request submitted late Friday evening (11 November) by Germany and Iceland, which has been supported by 44 States thus far. 

In order for a special session to be convened, the support of one-third of the 47 members of the Council – 16 or more - is required.  This request is thus far supported by the following States members of the Council (17): Argentina, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States.

The request was also supported by the following 27 observer States: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

The list of signatories remains open up to the holding of the special session.  Therefore, the above list of States is to be considered provisional.

In connection with this special session, the Council will convene an organizational meeting on Wednesday, 23 November at 3 p.m. when specific details on the special session and its scenario will be announced. 

This will be the thirty-fifth special session of the Council and the second this year.  A full list of Human Right Council special sessions can be found here here.

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