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Commission on Human Rights
58th session
10 April 2002


Statement of the Chairperson

Summary of the 14th, 15th, 16th and
17th meetings of the Expanded Bureau

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 8, 9 and 10 April 2002




1. The Expanded Bureau met four times on 8 and 9 April 2002 to address the very difficult situation resulting from the confirmation of the discontinuation of evening and night meetings. The Bureau will try to meet with the Secretary-General on Friday morning to share with him its concerns regarding the impact of the measures on the work of the Commission.

2. As I mentioned yesterday, the Bureau observed that, according to existing statistics, with the application of the current reduced speaking-time limits, the Commission would not be in a position to consider all items on its agenda. Accordingly, the Bureau contemplated a number of steps which could be taken to overcome some of the difficulties. I am now going to read out the measures which are now proposed to the plenary for its consideration.

3. Emergency measures: As was mentioned at the beginning of the session, all measures contemplated to overcome the difficulties are considered as being of an emergency nature. They are not deemed as revising or implicitly amending agreed provisions in document E/CN.4/2002/16 and will only be enforced at the 58th session.

4. Clustering of items: Some of the items in the agenda will be clustered and, accordingly, speakers will be inscribed in the relevant list of speakers. Speakers under a cluster of items will speak once only (indifferently on one or several of the concerned items). The sequential consideration of items or cluster of items will be as follows:

Item 10: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Item 11: Civil and Political Rights
Items 12 and 13: Integration of the human rights of women and the gender perspective and the rights of the child
Items 14 and 15: Specific groups and individuals and Indigenous issues (it being understood that Indigenous NGOs will be allowed to speak on Monday, 15 April)
Items 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20: Report of the Sub-Commission, including election of members, Promotion and Protection of human rights, Effective functioning of human rights mechanisms, Advisory services and Rationalization of the work of the Commission.

5. List of speakers: In view of the clustering of items 12 and 13 as well as items 14 and 15, please note that the former lists of speakers relating to agenda items 12, 13 and 14 which were closed on Monday at 6:00 p.m. are no longer valid. Participants already inscribed on agenda items 12, 13, and 14 will thus be asked to confirm inscription under the cluster of items 12 and 13 and/or the cluster of items 14 and 15. For this purpose the relevant lists of speakers will be re-opened this morning and closed at 6:00 p.m. today. However, this will be reserved to those who already inscribed themselves on agenda items 12, 13 and 14 and there will be no possibility for new participants to be added to the lists, with the sole exception of item 15 which has not yet been closed.

6. Participants who wish to address the Commission under items 16 to 20 should inscribe themselves on the list of speakers, which will be prepared under this cluster.

7. All new lists of speakers will remained opened until this afternoon at 6:00 p.m.

8. Following consensual agreement of the Expanded Bureau and given the importance of the issue as well as travel arrangements, the list of speakers under the cluster of items 14 and 15 will be re-opened for half an hour only on Monday,15 April 2002, exclusively for indigenous NGOs arriving on that date; Indigenous NGOs inscribed under the cluster of items 14 and 15 will be given the floor on Monday 15 April 2002.

9. Right of Reply: The right of reply will be exercised once only at the end of the item or cluster of items.

10. The Deadlines for submission of proposals under the remaining agenda items will be as follows:

Item 9: Wednesday, 10 April, at 6:00 p.m.
Item 10: Friday, 12 April, at 1:00 p.m.
Items 11, 12 and 13: Monday, 15 April at 6:00 p.m.
Items 14, 15 and 16: Wednesday, 17 April at 6:00 p.m.
Items 17, 18, 19, 20 and 3: Friday, 19 April at 6:00 p.m.

11. Voting: In order to take full advantage of the electronic system, voting will be as follows:

Friday (a.m.) 12 April on items 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
Friday (a.m. and p.m.), 19 April on items 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13
Thursday (p.m.) 25 April on items 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 3 as well as draft Resolution on Myanmar.

This timing may be re-adjusted depending on the experience resulting from our first round of voting this Friday.

12. Voting on the draft resolution on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Other Related Intolerance will be postponed to 19 April 2002.

13. National Institutions: National Institutions will be given the opportunity to speak under agenda item 18 for a combined period of one hour on 18 April at 3:00 p.m.. It will be up to the Coordinating Council to divide the available time between National Institutions.

14. Adoption of the Report: The report will be adopted ad referendum on Friday, 26 April 2002, it being understood that serious efforts will be made to ensure that as many Chapters of the report as possible will be made available in all languages.

15. The division of the available time between item or cluster will be as follows:

Item 10: 11 hours
Item 11: 11 hours
Items 12 and 13: 8 ½ hours
Items 14 and 15: 8 ½ hours
Items 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20: 6 hours (including one hour for national institutions)

In addition two hours will be allocated for the exercise of the rights of reply. Efforts will be made to ensure that all delegations who wish to do it will be able to exercise their right of reply at the end of the item or cluster of items.

16. In view of the time gained by the clustering process, it will not be necessary to reduce further the speaking-time limits which were agreed upon few days ago. As far as item 11 is concerned, the participants will not be given the usual discretional additional 1 minute.

17. Should some participants inscribed on the list of speakers under any given agenda item or cluster of items not be in a position to take the floor because of the time-limits referred to in paragraph 15 above, they will be given the possibility to circulate their statements as official documents.

18. As I mentioned yesterday afternoon, it is my intention to meet with NGO participants this afternoon at 6:00 p.m. to discuss these measures.



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