The United Nations Office at Geneva

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The hold­ing of the Spe­cial Ses­sion comes at the request of Brazil. The request is co-sponsored by the fol­low­ing 32 Mem­ber States of the Human Rights Coun­cil: Angola, Argentina, Bahrain, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, Brazil, Burk­ina Faso, Chile, China, Cuba, Dji­bouti, Egypt, France, Gabon, India, Italy, Japan, Jor­dan, Mex­ico, Nicaragua, Nige­ria, Nor­way, Pak­istan, the Philip­pines, the Repub­lic of Korea, the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion, Saudi Ara­bia, Sene­gal, South Africa, the United King­dom, the United States and Uruguay. Nine observer States, includ­ing Haiti, also sup­ported the hold­ing of the Spe­cial Session.

This will be the thir­teenth Spe­cial Ses­sion of the Coun­cil. Pre­vi­ous Spe­cial Ses­sions have been held on the human rights sit­u­a­tions in the Occu­pied Pales­tin­ian Ter­ri­to­ries, in Lebanon, in Dar­fur, in Myan­mar, in the Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of the Congo and in Sri Lanka, as well as on the world food cri­sis and the eco­nomic and finan­cial cri­sis in rela­tion to human rights.