On Thursday 24 November 2022, the Human Rights Council convened a special session to address ‘the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with respect to women and children’. The Special Session was requested via an official letter dated 11 November signed by H.E. Katharina Stasch, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations …
Quick summary The 35th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC35) was held from Tuesday 6th June to Friday 23rd June 2017. On 6th June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, H.E. Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, presented an oral update on the global human rights situation. A number of dignitaries delivered statements during the session, including inter alia, H.E. Mr Tabaré Vazquez, …
Quick summary The 55th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC55) was held from Monday, 26 February 2024 to 5 April 2024. As the main session of the Council, HRC55 began with a High-Level Segment (HLS). The 2024 HLS included speeches by more than 130 world leaders, including two heads or deputy heads of State, eight heads or deputy …
‘We are going backwards, inequalities are skyrocketing, climate change is burning and pounding our planet, and the number of people living in severe poverty has risen, for the first time in a generation. […] The system is broken.’ These were the sombre words chosen by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to open the Sixth Intersessional Meeting of the …
On 10 October 2023, the UN General Assembly (GA) convened in New York to elect new members of the Human Rights Council for the term 2024-2026. Albania, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Malawi, and the Netherlands were duly elected. As soon as the votes were cast and the new members announced, …
Quick summary The 54th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC54) was held from Monday 11th September to Friday 13th October 2023. On 11 September, the High Commissioner Volker Türk opened HRC54 by presenting a global update on the situation of human rights in the world. In his intervention, the High Commissioner focused on the links between development and …
We are living in ‘an age of massive concentration of wealth, and unprecedented inequalities,’ an ‘abyss [has opened] between rich and poor [that] harms everyone.’ With these words, pronounced in his opening global update at the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, High Commissioner Volker Türk cast the spotlight on inequality, an issue that has been gaining ground in the human rights …
On 11th July 2023, during the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council, which opened on June 19, 2023, an urgent debate was convened to ‘discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries.’ The urgent debate was requested in an official …
On Thursday 11 May 2023, the Human Rights Council convened a special session to address ‘the human rights impact of the ongoing conflict in the Sudan’. The Special Session was requested via an official letter dated 5 May signed by H.E. Simon Manley, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and submitted as a joint request by …
Quick Summary The 52nd regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC52) was held from Monday 27th February to Tuesday 4th April 2023. As the main session of the Council, HRC52 began with a High-Level Segment (HLS). The 2023 HLS included speeches by more than 130 world leaders, including three heads or deputy heads of State, eight heads or deputy …
