Switzerland has held a seminar in Lausanne on the new UN Human Rights Council
Berne, 15.05.2006 - Switzerland, which was recently elected to the Human Rights Council, held a seminar in Lausanne on 15 May on the work programme that the new body should adopt in the first year of its existence. All states were invited to the informal discussions, and about 350 participants from more than 140 countries attended the seminar. Participants included human rights experts. With the first official session of the Council planned for 19 June in Geneva, the purpose of this seminar was to take stock of current thinking and to focus discussions on the most urgent issues.
The purpose of the seminar was to hold substantive trans-regional discussions on the most pressing issue – the working programme for the first year of the Council's existence. Other outstanding major issues, such as the new body's architecture (in particular the role of the president and of the president's office and secretariat), the revision of mandates inherited from the Commission on Human Rights, the way to deal with country situations and the new mechanism of periodical universal reviews conducted by experts, have all been debated. Ambassadors and experts from permanent missions in Geneva were strongly represented and several countries also sent experts from capital cities.
For Switzerland, getting the new Council off to a good start will be one of the main challenges in the coming months. As Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey, head of the DFA, told seminar participants: "Switzerland has made various efforts to help this Council to become strong, effective and fair. It is essential for us that this Council should make a clean break from the former Commission on Human Rights".
Switzerland's main motive for launching this initiative was to create a forum to facilitate informal discussions between delegations at a key moment for the establishment of the Council. The seminar was one of the first major informal meetings since the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution which established the Council on 15 March.
Switzerland was very active in its efforts to establish the Council and has been elected as one of the 47 first members of the new body. The DFA held similar meetings in May and June last year in Lausanne, which drove forward reflections on the idea of establishing a new UN Human Rights Council.
Further information:
DFA, Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in Geneva, M. Raphaël Saborit, Tel. 079 335 76 14, e-mail: raphael.saborit@eda.admin.ch
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