Human rights Council to hold special session on the human rights situation in Burundi on 17 December

The Human Rights Council will hold its twenty-fourth Special Session on the human rights situation in Burundi on Thursday, 17 December.

The request for the Special Session, supported by 43 States, was delivered by the United States on Friday, 11 December. In order for a Special Session to be convened, the support of one-third of the Council — 16 or more - is required. This request was thus far supported by the following States Members of the Council (18): Albania, Argentina, El Salvador, Estonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom and the United States. The request was also supported by the following observer States (25): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Panama, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. The list of signatories remains open up to the holding of the Special Session, which will start at 10 a.m. in Room XX at the Palais des Nations. It will be webcast live on webtv.un.org. The last Special Session of the Council was held on terrorist attacks and human rights abuses by Boko Haram on 1 April 2015.