The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presents its compliments to all Permanent Missions in Geneva, United Nations departments and bodies, specialised agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and has the honour to inform them that the President of the Human Rights Council, having consulted with interested parties, has decided to convene a special session on Friday, 11 August 2006, starting at 10.00 am, in order to respond to the request of the Ambassador of Tunisia, on behalf of the Group of Arab States and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, supported in total by 16 Member States.

The above-mentioned request read as follows: "Upon the decision of the Group of Arab States and the Group of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), I have the honour to request you to convene immediately a special session of the Human Rights Council to consider and take action on the gross human rights violations by Israel in Lebanon, including the Qana massacre, country-wide targeting of innocent civilians, and destruction of vital civilian infrastructure”.

In order for a special session to be convened, in conformity with operative paragraph 10 of the General Assembly Resolution 60/251, the support of one-third of the membership of the Council (16 members or more) is required. The above-mentioned request was signed by the following Member States: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

The modalities for the 1st special session held on 5 and 6 July 2006 that were prepared by the President of the Council in consultation with the Bureau are available at the link above.

Previous CHR News items

• 04/08/2006: Invitation to submit proposals on the Universal Periodic Review
• 25/07/2006: Establishment of two Working Groups on the Universal Periodic Review and the Review of Mandates and Mechanisms
• 19/07/2006: Discours de l'Expert Indépendant pour l'Etude des NU sur la Violence contre les Enfants lors de la 1ère session du Conseil des Droits de l'Homme
• 16/07/2006: Composition du Conseil des Droits de l'Homme
• 16/07/2006: Liste des procédures thématiques et d'examen par pays et autres mécanismes hérités de la Commission

Organisation Contact Details:

UN Human Rights Council
Website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/

Last updated 09/08/2006 07:18:37

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