Sixty-first General Assembly

General Committee

4^th Meeting (AM)

GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THAT GENERAL ASSEMBLY, THIRD COMMITTEE

TAKE UP FIRST-EVER HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REPORT AT CURRENT SESSION

The General Committee today recommended the allocation of the first-ever annual report of the new Human Rights Council to both the General Assembly’s plenary and the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) as a further agenda item of the current session, with the understanding that the Third Committee would consider all recommendations of the Council, including those dealing with the development of international law in the field of human rights.

The arrangement was based on the fact that the Human Rights Council had only commenced its work in June.  In no way was today’s decision a reinterpretation of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 6 March, by which the Human Rights Council had been created.  As such, the arrangement for considering the Council’s report would be reviewed before the beginning of the Assembly’s sixty-second session, “on the basis of the experience gained with the efficiency and practicality of this arrangement”.  It was also decided this morning that the Assembly would take up the General Committee’s recommendation on Thursday.

The Human Rights Council was created in response to a 2005 World Summit decision of Heads of State and Government as a mechanism to reform and reinvigorate the United Nations human rights machinery.   The Council’s two vital elements are the universal review mechanism and the thematic special procedures component, under which it has already considered a wide range of issues from racism and torture to transnational corporations and counter-terrorism.

After the Council’s inaugural session in Geneva in June, the second session opened in September.  That session is now suspended until 27 November, when draft proposals will be considered.  The third session will open immediately thereafter.

The General Committee will meet again at a time to be announced.

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For information media • not an official record