The Human Rights Council will hold its thirty-third regular session from 13 to 30 September 2016 in the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
- Programme of work
- Coverage
- Resolutions
- Side events
- NGO participation and submission deadlines
- Documents and reports
- Further information
1. Programme of work
Week One of the Session
The thirty-third session of the Human Rights Council will open on Tuesday, 13 September at 9 a.m. The Council will then hear an oral update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, on which a general debate will start the following morning. The Council will hold a clustered interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert (IE) on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order and the Special Rapporteur (SR) on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Council will hold an interactive dialogue with the Working Group on arbitrary detention. On Wednesday, 14 September, after concluding its general debate, the Council will hold a clustered interactive dialogue with the IE on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons and the SR on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, followed by a high-level panel discussion on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training.
The next day, the Council will hold two clustered interactive dialogues: one with the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and the SR on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; and the other one with the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination and with the SR on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes.
On Friday, 16 September, the Council will hold a general debate on the promotion and protection of all human rights, including on the report of the Working Group on the right to development on its seventeenth session and on thematic reports by the High Commissioner, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General. At 5 p.m. that day, the Council will meet in private under its complaint procedure.
Week Two of the Session
On Monday, 19 September, the Council will hold an interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, followed by a general debate on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention.
The next day will start with a half-day panel discussion on violence against indigenous women and girls, followed by a clustered interactive dialogue with the SR on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples. At 3 p.m., the Council will hold an interactive dialogue with its Advisory Committee, followed by a general debate on human rights bodies and mechanisms, including on the report of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas on progress made in drafting the declaration.
The rest of the second week will mostly be dedicated to the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. On Wednesday to Friday morning, the Council will consider two additional UPR outcomes, namely Thailand and Ireland, followed by a general debate on the ~UPR mechanism. At 3 p.m., the Council will hold its general debate on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.
Week Three of the Session
The third week will start with an annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective, which will be followed by a general debate on the follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. The Council will hold an interactive dialogue with the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, followed by a general debate on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.
On Tuesday, 27 September, the Council will hold separate interactive dialogues with the High Commissioner on Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Libya, followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation in Burundi. The next day, it will hold separate interactive dialogues with the SR on the situation of human rights in Cambodia and the IE’s on the human rights situation in Sudan, the Central African Republic and Somalia, before starting a general debate on technical assistance and capacity building, including on the reports of the High Commissioner on Yemen and Cambodia, to be concluded the next morning.
At noon on Thursday, 29 September, the Council will begin to take action on draft resolutions, which will last until the next day.
Before concluding its session session, the Council will proceed with the election of members of the Advisory Committee. The President of the Council will also appoint the following new IE mandate holders: Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, SR on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, SR on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, IE on the protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and a member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention from the group of East European States.
Access the full draft programme.http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20457&LangID=E
2. Coverage
A live Webcast service will be available under the Council’s webpage, covering the plenary session online. Relevant and updated information on the 30th session of the HRC will be regularly posted on the HRC Extranet.
You can log-in using the following details:
Username: hrc extranet
Password: 1session.
3. Resolutions
Selected resolutions set to be tabled and discussed will appear on the official HRC session website once they are made available.
4. Side events
"Education: reaching the furthest behind first,"organised by Save the Children. 16 September 2016 –13:00 to 15: 00, Room XXIV
"Public Budgeting for the Realization of Children’s Rights - Launch General Comment 19 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child", Organised by Child Rights Connect Working Group on Investment In Children. 22 September 2016, 13:15-14:45, Palais des Nations Room 24, Geneva, Switzerland;
"10 years on the Study on Violence Against Children, past, present and future," organised by the Working Group of Child Rights Connect on Children and Violence. 27 September 2016 (tentative – TBC), 16:00 to 18:00, room TBC
Meeting of HRC President with NGOs, Friday, 23 September, 9h00 - Room XXV. More information is available here.
5. NGO participation and submission deadlines
Please consult the HRC NGO Participation page for further information. A practical guide for NGO participants (about accreditation, attending the session, access to the public gallery, requesting a room for a parallel event, making an oral statement, documentation and resources, and participation in general, etc.) [Arabic - Chinese- English - French - Russian - Spanish]. Before you request for accreditation to the HRC/UPR sessions and related meetings, please ensure that you have finalized the annual accreditation of your NGO with the United Nations Office at Geneva. For more information on annual accreditations, please consult the following website: www.unog.ch/ngo/accreditation.
6. Document and Reports
Documents and reports submitted to the HRC can be accessed here:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session33/Pages/ListReports.aspx
There are a number of reports to the HRC that focus exclusively on children.
A/HRC/33/23 - Implementation of the technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5 years of age - Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A/HRC/33/53 - The global issue of unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents and human rights- Study of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee
7. Further Information
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Subscribe to our monthly "Child Rights at the United Nations" CRINmail
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Read CRIN's guide on the Human Rights Council
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Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Press releases are issued by the HRC on a daily basis during HRC sessions and are available on the OHCHR website. In addition, relevant documents are posted on the Human Rights Council extranet.
Civil society news and perspectives are available on the following websites: