Background release

The Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Thursday, 12 May, to address the deteriorating human rights situation in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression.

The special session will start at 10 a.m. in room XX of the Palais des Nations. The meeting will be webcast live in six United Nations languages. It is being convened according to an official request submitted today by Ukraine and supported so far by 53 States.

In order for a special session to be convened, the support of one-third of the 47 members of the Council – 16 or more - is required. This request was thus far supported by the following States members of the Council (16): Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States.

The request was also supported by the following observer States (37): Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The list of signatories remains open up to the holding of the special session. Therefore, the above list of States is to be considered provisional.

In connection with this special session, the Council will convene an organisational meeting on Wednesday, 11 May at 10 a.m. when specific details on the special session and its scenario will be announced. This meeting is also public and will be webcast.

This will be the thirty-fourth special session of the Council. A full list of special sessions of the Human Rights Council can be found here.

During the forty-ninth regular session of the Human Rights Council, the Council on 3 and 4 March 2022 held an urgent debate on the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine, after which it decided to establish an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged violations of human rights in the context of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s thirty-fourth special session can be found here.