Note to Correspondents

Department of Public Information to Host Press Conferences by Human Rights Experts,

in Conjunction with General Assembly’s Third Committee, 10 October - 1 November

As the six Main Committees of the General Assembly begin their work, the Department of Public Information and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will hold a series of press conferences by human rights experts expected to attend this year’s session of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

The Committee considers a range of social, humanitarian, and human rights issues during the main part of the Assembly’s annual session.  Its human rights work includes examining reports by special rapporteurs, independent experts and chairs of Human Rights Council working groups.  This month, the Committee will hear and interact with 34 such experts.

All the press conferences will take place in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium as follows:

Monday, 10 October, 1:15 p.m. — Silvia Pimentel, Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.

Tuesday, 18 October, 1:15 p.m. — Claudio Grossman, Chair of the Committee against Torture; Malcolm Evans, Chair of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture; and Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on torture.

Wednesday, 19 October, 1:15 p.m. — Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.

Thursday, 20 October, 11:15 a.m. — Tomas Ojea Quintana, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; 1:15 p.m. — Heiner Bielefeldt, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; and 2 p.m. — Richard Falk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Friday, 21 October, 11:15 a.m. — Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights; 12:30 p.m. — Frank La Rue, Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression; and 1:15 p.m. — Francois Crépeau, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

Monday, 24 October, 1:15 p.m. — Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; and 1:45 p.m. — Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

Tuesday, 1 November, 11:15 a.m. — Faiza Patel, Chairperson of the Working Group on Mercenaries.

Available for interviews only upon request:  Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing (21 October).

The human rights experts’ reports to the General Assembly are available online at http://www.un.org/en/ga/third/66/documentslist.shtml.

Journalists without United Nations press accreditation wishing to attend the press conferences, please refer to the website of the Media and Accreditation Liaison Unit for details: www.un.org/media/accreditation.

For further information and media inquiries, please contact Renata Sivacolundhu, Department of Public Information, tel: +1 212 963 2932, e-mail:  sivacolundhu@un.org; and/or Fred Kirungi, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, tel: +1 917 367 3431, e-mail:  kirungi@un.org.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record