Highlights of Human Rights Council’s Fourth Session So Far

New York, 15 March 2007 –The Human Rights Council opened its Fourth Regular Session in Geneva this week. It will hold daily meetings until 30 March.  The Session was shortened from four weeks to three weeks, while the Council’s working groups are meeting for an additional three weeks (from 10-27 March) to discuss the finalization of the Council’s institution-building.

Most recent timetable for the Session: Click here.  

Draft timetable for the informal meetings of the Council's working groups on institution building processes: Click here.

The Session began with the two-day, ministerial “High-level Segment” earlier this week.  The Segment included statements from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Council President Ambassador Luis de Alba, and High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.  Twenty-eight member state delegations made statements on the work of the Council, and their particular human rights concerns.  The High Commissioner also held a dialogue session with member states and NGOs on 14 March.  Her statement at the dialogue session can be found here (in French).  The Segment also included the report of the mission to Darfur, which took place (in Chad, Ethiopia, and Geneva) from 5 February to 5 March. 

Today Ms. Arbour presented the reports of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Secretary-General to the Council. 

Positions on HRC’s Institution-Building

Many of the delegations’ statements this week addressed the ongoing “institution-building” of the Council.  According to an update from the International Service for Human Rights:

• Thirteen delegations[1] highlighted the importance of strengthening the Special Procedures.[2] The Special Procedures are the procedures by which the Council can monitor and examine specific country situations and/or specific human rights violations.

• Fifteen countries[3] – in addition to Mr. Ban – mentioned the implementation of the Universal Periodic Review[4] as essential to the Council’s future ability to address human rights situations.

• Several delegations (Germany on behalf of the European Union, France, the observer delegation of the Community of Democracies, Algeria, and Argentina) mentioned the benefits of including non-governmental and civil society expertise in discussing Council matters.

A few other delegations stressed the importance of fast and successful institution-building.  The Council working groups tasked with these issues have been meeting periodically are expected to conclude the rules of procedure by the Council’s first anniversary in June this year.  An update on their work will be sent out in the next Latest Development.

High-level Mission’s Report on Darfur

On 12 March the Council heard the report of the High-level Fact-finding Mission on the human rights situation in the Darfur region of Sudan.

One of the most pressing issues emphasized in the report was the inadequate cooperation by the government of Sudan.  The mission team appointed by the President of the Council repeatedly was denied access to travel to Sudan, forcing the mission to pursue its mandate in Chad and other surrounding areas, such as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. One member, Indonesia’s ambassador to the UN Marakim Wibisono, withdrew from the team on 14 February after being denied the promised visa.

According to various sources, these difficulties with access have led members of the mission to worry that some members of the Council might refuse to accept the report.  Indeed, when the report was presented, Sudan exercised the right of reply to the majority of country statements that dealt with the situation in Darfur, to describe the legitimacy of the mission report as “questionable” because the information had been compiled outside of Sudan and in a country with negative views towards Sudan (Chad).

The report also outlines human rights violations committed against the civilians of Darfur, describes the roots of conflict and parties involved, highlights where the Responsibility to Protect applies regarding the Sudanese government and the international community, and makes recommendations to the Human Rights Council, the Sudanese government, armed groups in Darfur, and the international community.

Coming Up

The second week of the Session (19-23 March) will be devoted largely to specific human rights issues (minorities, migrants, indigenous peoples, violence against women, economic policies, education), as well as updates on country-specific situations (Burma, Burundi, Liberia).

The third and last week (26-30 March) will begin with the report of working group on the 1503 Complaint Procedure, followed by the reports of the other institution-building working groups on 29 March.  It also will address issues of human rights and terrorism, torture, summary execution, arbitrary detention, religion and belief, health, transnational corporations, and human rights defenders. Conclusions and decisions will be consolidated on Friday, 30 March.

Information for Participating NGOs

Information for NGOs interested in participating in the Council’s Fourth Session can be found here. Guidelines for submitting NGO statements are available here.

The Human Rights Council Secretariat, the Conference of NGOs, and the International Service for Human Rights will hold an NGO orientation session on 19 March. 

Useful Resources

International Service for Human Rights follows the daily meetings of the Fourth Session closely. For detailed summaries of daily discussions, click here (Monday, 12 March), here (Tuesday, 13 March), here (morning of Wednesday, 14 March), and here (afternoon of Wednesday, 14 March).

Provisional agenda for the Session (does not account for recent decision to shorten Session)

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[1] Switzerland, Germany (on behalf of the European Union), Luxembourg, The Philippines, the Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil, France, Ecuador, Argentina, Pakistan, Malta and Spain

[2] Click here for a summary of the Working Group on Special Procedures discussions from 29 November to 8 December 2006. The Working Group met again from 5-19 February, and ReformtheUN.org will outline conclusions from the meetings as soon as summaries become available. 

[3] Switzerland, Germany (on behalf of the European Union), Luxembourg, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil, France, Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala, Japan, Pakistan and Uruguay

[4] Click here for a summary of the Working Group on Universal Periodic Review discussions from 29 November to 8 December 2006. The Working Group met again from 5-19 February, and ReformtheUN.org will outline conclusions from the meetings as soon as summaries become available.