Colombo (LNW): The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will commence its fifty-fourth regular session today, September 11, 2023, and will hold till October 13, 2023 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The session will open at 10 a.m. on Monday, 11 September under the presidency of Ambassador Václav Bálek (Czech Republic). The opening will be addressed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. The Council will be meeting in room XX of the Palais des Nations.
During the session, the Council will hold 29 interactive dialogues with Special Procedure mandate holders, expert mechanisms and investigative mechanisms.
It will hold interactive dialogues with the High Commissioner on his annual report, and on the human rights situations in Nicaragua and Sudan under agenda item two on the annual report of the High Commissioner and reports of his Office and the Secretary-General; in Belarus and Myanmar under agenda item four on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention; and in Ukraine and Haiti under agenda item 10 on technical assistance and capacity building.
Further, the Council will hold two enhanced interactive dialogues with the High Commissioner, one on racial justice in law enforcement, and the other on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Council will also hold an interactive dialogue with the Advisory Committee and five panel discussions on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Council, youth and human rights, cyberbullying against children, and the rights of indigenous peoples. It will additionally hear presentations of country and thematic reports from the Secretary-General, including his report on reprisals against those who seek to cooperate or have cooperated with the United Nations.
Reports and oral updates will also be presented on the human rights situations in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nicaragua under agenda item two; Ethiopia, Russian Federation, Syria, Burundi, Ukraine and Venezuela under agenda item four; and in South Sudan, Cambodia, Somalia, Central African Republic, Georgia and Yemen under agenda item 10. Towards the end of the session, the Council will appoint a total of 12 mandate holders of Special Procedures, and seven members of its Advisory Committee.
The final outcomes of the Universal Periodic Review of 14 States will also be considered, namely those of France, Tonga, Romania, Mali, Montenegro, Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein and Serbia.
The Council will adopt outcome documents for each review, which will include recommendations for the improvement of the human rights situation in each country. The general debate on agenda item six on the Universal Periodic Review is scheduled to take place on the morning of 4 October.
