Today, the President of the Human Rights Council, H.E. Mr. Baudelaire Ndong Ella, addressed member states on the work of the 26th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva from June 10th-27th 2014. The program of work for the council had 42 meetings in the 3 weeks with 2,000 participants discussing human rights topics ranging from worldwide humanitarian crises to the abolition of the death penalty.
Mr. Ella stated that 3 main panels were held: a high level meeting on best practices in combating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a panel discussion on the safety and security of journalists, and a panel on the prevention and elimination of child marriages. The Human Rights Council also held debates on women’s rights, sustainable development and human rights, and technical cooperation and capacity building on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Mr. Ella stressed that the council’s work is becoming more dynamic, with a constantly increasing workload. Furthermore, the human rights situations in Eritrea, People’s Republic of Korea, Belarus, Ukraine, Palestine, and Syria were also discussed at the meeting in Geneva.
The council’s work concluded with a new mandate for a special rapporteur on persons with disabilities, and a resolution on the death penalty to be discussed during the next biennial meetings. This briefing on the Human Rights Council’s work concluded with statements and questions by member states from the floor.
Meeting Title: Briefing for Member States of the Third and Fifth Committees by the President of the Human Rights Council (organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR))
Speaker: H.E. Mr. Baudelaire Ndong Ella, President of the Human Rights Council
Date: 16 July 2014
Location: Conference Room 4 NLB, United Nations HQ, New York
Written By WIT Representative: Marli Kasdan
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