Human Rights Council, Organizational Meeting, 19th June 2007 (3 p.m. - 6p.m.)

The session began with the election of the members of the bureau. Mr. Doru Romulus Costea, presented by Poland on behalf of the East –European group, was elected by acclamation by the council. He thanked the participants and particularly the ambassador D’Alba for his effort, determination and diplomatic skills deployed. He noticed that the creation of new mechanisms, such as the Universal Periodic Review and the new abilities given to special procedures, revealed that the stated were willing and were making progress in building the new body for the defense of human rights, in a spirit of trust and collaboration. He assured the council that he would do his best to make the new mechanisms work properly. Finally, he stressed the need for finalizing the procedures around the new mechanisms, to start as soon as possible and signal the endeavor and commitment of the council to the promotion and protection of human rights. The council thereafter elected the four vice presidents, representing respectively the States of Uruguay, Djibouti, Netherlands and Sri-Lanka.
Before the president was to continue with the follow-up to decisions of the council made previously, concerning Institution building of the council and the Draft code of conduct for special procedures mandate holders, Canada raised a point of order. The Canadian representative asked whether a decision had been indeed taken concerning those points. The president ruled that the decision had been taken by the council on its 9th meeting on June 18th and his ruling was approved by vote by all the members of the council except Canada.
Thereafter, several Nations made some remarks.
The United Kingdom considered that the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was the sole innovation of the council and regretted that two mandates of the special procedures had not been renewed. He also expressed concerns about the impact of the violence between Hamas and Fattah on the civil population of the Palestinian territories.
Pakistan, on behalf of the Islamic Conference, stated that the UPR mechanism should remain an intergovernmental tool, with its nature depending on the approbation of the State under review.
Bangladesh wished to remind the council that the UPR should be based on the national reports and its outcome should derive from a consensus.
Malaysia thanked the representative of China for his effort and flexibility during the negotiations and wished to see a strong engagement on behalf of the mandate holders. Cuba argued against the double measure system and criticized Canada on not condemning the exactions commitment by the Unites States on the Cuban territory.
Morocco expressed regrets that the council had to vote for the adoption of a document which resulted from several days of negotiations, collaboration and consensus.
On behalf on the Asian group, Sri-Lanka thanked all the actors of the negotiations and stressed that the council should base its activities on cooperation.
Switzerland and France recognized that the adopted text represented a consensus but the former regretted the non-inclusion of independent expertise in the UPR process while France was disappointed that all the special procedures had not been maintained and hoped that the mandate holders would not loose their independence.
Finally, Israel expressed regrets about the adoption of the new document on institutional building, which it thought was the result of a politicized consensus.