UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS

The Geneva Centre closely monitored the 47^th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC). The HRC47^th session was held from 21 June to 15 July 2021. For the first time, the June session continued for four weeks due to the fact that new mandates were created that required additional meeting hours.

The Council’s meetings were presided by the President H.E. Ms Nazhat Shameem Khan, and four Vice-Presidents from all regional groups, including H.E. Ms Keva Lorraine BAIN (Bahamas), H.E. Ms. Ebyan Mahamed Salah (Somalia), H.E. Ms Monique T.G. Van Daalen (Netherlands), and H.E. Mr Yuri Borissov STERK (Bulgaria).

The session began with the presentation of the Annual Report by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights which the Geneva Centre closely followed. No general debates were held during the 47th session, however, the Council held 25 interactive dialogues with special procedure mandate holders and mechanisms, 6 interactive dialogues with the High Commissioner and 1 interactive dialogue with the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General. The Council also adopted 25 Resolutions, 2 Decisions, 13 outcomes of the Universal Periodic Review, and elected 7 mandate holders of Special Procedures.

7 panel discussions were held during the 47th session, including on topics such as multisectoral prevention of and response to female genital mutilation (23 June 2021); the tenth anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (29 June 2021); human rights of older persons in the context of climate change (30 June 2021); human rights of women, with Panel 1: Violence against women and girls with disabilities (5 July 2021) and Panel 2: Gender-equal socioeconomic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic (6 July 2021); promoting human rights through sport and the Olympic ideal (7 July 2021) under the theme of “The potential of leveraging sport and the Olympic ideal for promoting human rights for young people“, and technical cooperation and capacity-building, under the theme of “Technical cooperation to advance the right to education and ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all“.

In view of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Extraordinary Modalities continued to be applied, with predominantly remote participation.