Report on the 23rd May Open-ended Consultations

Submitted by crinadmin on


The consultations on the first session of the HRC that took place yesterday in Geneva were convened by the Chair of the HRC, the Ambassador of Mexico and attended by diplomatic missions and NGOs. The Deputy High Commissioner also attended the whole meeting. 

Issues of interest during the discussion include:

  • the mention of the participation of NGO representative in the high level segment (HLS) (Western Group/Grulac supportive, some Asian/African countries against), but the chair being in favour, there should be no major obstacles in having speeches from NGOs. How and for how long remains to be decided.
  • the idea of inviting the chair of the coordinating committee of the Special Procedures to give a speech during the HLS (proposal from Norway - the NGOs want to have him at the inauguration ceremony)
  • towards the end of the meeting, Chile presented a non paper on the first meeting of the HRC (prepared jointly by Chile, Russia, India, Norway and South-Africa) with a proposal for criteria for the preparation of the work of the HRC and a possible agenda. There was no discussion on this and the chair will come up with a proposal for next week after having consulted the diplomatic missions. So the non paper is only a basis for discussion.

Decisions of interest:

  • The High Commissioner will report to the HRC
  • There seems to be an agreement that all mandates will be extended. But the mandate holders will not be able to present their reports to the HRC.
  • Standard settings - report from working groups
  • The HRC will prepare a programme of work for the 1st year (June to June)

So, the starting point is very much on a celebration and procedural oriented first session of the Council. The first week will then be dealing with the celebration and HLS and the second on procedures.

Further consultations:

  • Tuesday 30 May
  • Tuesday 6 June
  • Tuesday 13 June

Owner: Subgroup for the Human Rights Council

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