Please connect to the CONGO NGO News Center:
www.room17.org

Round-Up , Commission on Human Rights concludes 59th session

Resolutions adopted at the fifty-ninth session (Slow Connection, please be patient)

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Follow-Up to the World Conference on Human Rights

NGO Joint Statement with International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education (OIDEL), UN Liaison Office of Soka Gakkai International, International Federation of University Women, International Federation of Social Workers, Delivered by Renate Bloem, President of CONGO

Agenda item 18, 18(b) : Effective functioning of human rights mechanisms, National institutions and regional arrangements

PROVISIONAL AGENDA
Note by the Secretary-General

Duration and venue of the session

1. The fifty-ninth session of the Commission on Human Rights will be held at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 17 March to 25 April 2003. The first meeting was convened at 10.30 a.m. on Monday, 20 January 2003.

You can download the Word Format File of the ANNOTATED AGENDA of the 59th session of the Commission, by clicking here : (English Version) , (French Version)

Provisional agenda

2. The provisional agenda, prepared in accordance with rule 5 of the rules of procedure of the functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, is reproduced below.

Inter-sessional and pre-sessional working groups

3. The fifty-ninth session of the Commission is preceded by meetings of seven working groups in connection with the following items:

(a) Item 6: An intergovernmental working group mandated to make recommendations with a view to the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (Commission resolution 2002/68, Economic and Social Council decision 2002/270) is scheduled to meet from 21 to 31 January 2003;

(b) Item 6: A working group of five independent experts on people of African descent (Commission resolution 2002/68, Economic and Social Council decision 2002/270) is scheduled to meet from 25 to 29 November 2002 and from 3 to 7 February 2003;

(c) Item 7: An open-ended working group established to monitor and review progress made in the promotion and implementation of the right to development (Commission resolution 2002/69, Economic and Social Council decision 2002/271) is scheduled to meet from 3 to 14 February 2003;

(d) Item 9 (b): The Working Group on Situations, composed of five members of the Commission, is scheduled to meet from 10 to 14 February 2003 to examine situations referred to it by the Working Group on Communications pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolutions 1503 (XLVIII) of 27 May 1970 and 2000/3 of 16 June 2000;

(e) Item 10: An open-ended working group established to elaborate policy guidelines on structural adjustment programmes and economic, social and cultural rights (Commission resolution 2002/29, Economic and Social Council decision 2002/257) is provisionally scheduled to meet from 11 to 22 November 2002;

(f) Item 11 (b): An open-ended working group established to elaborate a draft legally binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance (Commission resolution 2002/41, Economic and Social Council decision 2001/221) is scheduled to meet from 6 to 17 January 2003;

(g) Item 15: An open-ended working group established to elaborate a draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (Commission resolution 2002/64, Economic and Social Council decision 2002/268) is scheduled to meet from 2 to 13 December 2002.

4. Any decisions and resolutions affecting the provisional agenda of the fifty-ninth session of the Commission that may be adopted by the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session will be brought to the attention of the Commission in an addendum to the present document. The annotations to the items listed in the provisional agenda will also be issued in an addendum.

Provisional agenda

1. Election of officers.

2. Adoption of the agenda.

3. Organization of the work of the session.

4. Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights.

5. The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation.

6. Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination.

7. The right to development.

8. Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine.

9. Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world, including:

(a) Question of human rights in Cyprus;

(b) Procedure established in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolutions 1503 (XLVIII) and 2000/3.

10. Economic, social and cultural rights.

11. Civil and political rights, including the questions of:

(a) Torture and detention;

(b) Disappearances and summary executions;

(c) Freedom of expression;

(d) Independence of the judiciary, administration of justice, impunity;

(e) Religious intolerance;

(f) States of emergency;

(g) Conscientious objection to military service.

12. Integration of the human rights of women and the gender perspective:

(a) Violence against women.

13. Rights of the child.

14. Specific groups and individuals:

(a) Migrant workers;

(b) Minorities;

(c) Mass exoduses and displaced persons;

(d) Other vulnerable groups and individuals.

15. Indigenous issues.

16. Report of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights:

(a) Report and draft decisions;

(b) Election of members.

17. Promotion and protection of human rights:

(a) Status of the International Covenants on Human Rights;

(b) Human rights defenders;

(c) Information and education;

(d) Science and environment.

18. Effective functioning of human rights mechanisms:

(a) Treaty bodies;

(b) National institutions and regional arrangements;

(c) Adaptation and strengthening of the United Nations machinery for human rights.

19. Advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights.

20. Rationalization of the work of the Commission.

21. Comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.

22. (a) Draft provisional agenda for the sixtieth session of the Commission;

(b) Report to the Economic and Social Council on the fifty-ninth session of the Commission.