The United Nations Human Rights Council is holding its 48th regular session at Palais des Nations in Geneva, which will take place from the 13th of September to the 1st of October 2021. During this session, the Human Rights Council will consider various relevant issues, including intimidation and reprisals, arbitrary detention, racism, enforced disappearances, climate change and the right to a healthy environment, water and sanitation, and the rights of indigenous peoples and people of African descent, etc.
The Council will also provide a platform to address the grave human rights situations in States including Afghanistan, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, Libya, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela, etc.
On the first day, a variety of pertinent matters were highlighted, including :
The promotion of reconciliation, accountability and the human rights situation in Sri Lanka : In accordance with its resolution 46/1, the Human Rights Council requested OHCHR to enhance its monitoring and reporting on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, including on progress in reconciliation and accountability, and to present an oral update at its forty-eighth session.
The promotion and protection of human rights in Nicaragua and Venezuela
The human rights situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia : In accordance with its resolution 47/13, the Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner to present an oral update to the Council at its forty-eighth session on the situation of human rights in the Tigray region, as well as the progress made in the context of the joint investigation undertaken by OHCHR and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.
The human rights situation of Rohingya Muslims and other vulnerable minorities in Myanmar : In accordance with it’s resolution 39/2, the Human Rights Council established an ongoing independent mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011. Similarly, the Council announced that the mechanism must report on it’s main activities on an annual basis to the Council.
In normal circumstances, the Human Rights Council holds three regular sessions a year, in March, June and September. However, if requested by Member States during occurrences of human rights violations and emergencies, the Human Rights Council can decide to hold a special session.
For more information on the details of the session, visit : https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/Sessions.aspx
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