Here’s What to Expect at HRC 55
The 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council will take place from 26 February to 5 April 2024.
The session will not be hybrid because of the absence of the mandate from the General Assembly to retain remote participation. This will not affect pre-recorded statements at all debates, panels and discussions. Due to the ongoing renovations started in 2020 and since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, side events taking place in the Palais will be limited to one per organisation and one hour in duration.
Below you can find information about:
- Anticipated sexual rights-related resolutions, panels and reports
- UPR outcomes
- SRI’s events taking place during the 55th session
Please note that all dates are provisional and subject to change.
The latest information about the session will be available on OHCHR’s HRC55 page.
Access the full programme of work for HRC55
Access the HRC55 scheduled meeting calendar
Featured News
The 55th session of the Human Rights Council comes at a critical juncture for the premier multilateral body responsible for promoting and protecting human rights. Human rights norms and standards are universal, indivisible and interrelated, yet despite the mandate from the International Court of Justice, calls from the Secretary General of the UN, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Procedures, Treaty Monitoring Bodies, UN agencies, Israel continues its genocidal campaign. UNFPA has called the situation in Gaza beyond catastrophic, and violations of all human rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights are well documented. Israel continues to commit these violations with impunity with the support and arms supplied by many Global North states. Many of these very same Global North states have “imposed undue restrictions on civil society advocating for the rights of Palestinians, and on peaceful protest movements calling for a ceasefire and the protection of Palestinians’ human rights”, as highlighted by Special Procedures.
The past few years have seen increased polarisation on human rights in multilateral spaces including a sharp increase in attacks on issues and language concerning gender and sexual and reproductive rights. States that have been vocal supporters of this language, must defend the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the Palestinian people against the violations committed by the settler colonial state of Israel. The relevance of international human rights mechanisms for accountability and universality can only be maintained if SRHR is demonstrated as a right of every person. The current genocide in Palestine has shown us that the Global North is woefully failing to manifest its commitment to a truly just and equal world.
We demand the international community uphold Palestinians’ right to self-determination and return and condemn Israel’s colonial apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinian people. As long as the people of Palestine are not free, none of us who struggle for justice will be free.
SRI Side-event at HRC 55: Political Economy of Sexual Rights
12 March 2024 - 14h00 - 15h00 CET
In person: Room XXV, Palais des Nations
Online: The event will be livestreamed online in English.
Register now to stay updated with the event details.
Despite the core and often repeated tenet that human rights are indivisible and interdependent, rights are mostly understood and articulated in individualistic and decontextualised ways that align with neoliberal conceptions of the market, the individual, the state and global governance. As the world faces multiple human rights crises, including wars, genocide, the climate emergency and post-pandemic impacts, one certainty is that until all human rights and fundamental freedoms are adopted universally by everyone, we won't be able to build back better. It is also incumbent upon everyone to embody the idea of indivisibility of all human rights that they are linked to each other and not carved out in separate corners. As multilateral and human rights institutions face a legitimacy crisis, it is essential to understand that intersectional analysis of human rights necessarily means resisting the instrumentalisation of rights of sexual rights, by states, corporations or other agencies.
Join us for this side event that will ground sexual rights and bodily autonomy in the social and political contexts, highlighting that there can be no hierarchy of rights. The side event builds on the three conversations the SRI held last on the political economy of sexual rights, the analysis from conversation one, conversation two and conversation three.
Expected Resolutions Relevant to Sexual Rights
- Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatisation of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons based on religion or belief (Pakistan, on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation)
- Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Human rights and the environment (Switzerland, Costa Rica, Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia)
- Prevention of Genocide (Armenia)
- The Right to Work (Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania)
- The Right to Food (Cuba)
- Promotion of the enjoyment of the cultural rights of everyone and respect for cultural diversity (Cuba)
- Effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights (Cuba)
- Right to adequate housing (Finland, Brazil, Germany, Namibia)
- Combating violence, discrimination and harmful practices against intersex persons (Australia, Chile, South Africa, Finland)
- Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy (Austria, Brazil, Germany, Liechtenstein, Mexico)
- Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Denmark)
- Promoting and strengthening a culture of peace (Gambia, Lesotho, Chile, Mozambique, Côte d'Ivoire, South Sudan, Kazakhstan, Botswana)
- Rights of persons belonging to minorities (Austria, Mexico, Slovenia)
- Rights of persons with disabilities (Mexico, New Zealand)
- Freedom of religion or belief (European Union)
- Rights of the child (European Union and GRULAC)
- Role of States in countering the negative impact of disinformation on the enjoyment and realization of human rights (Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America)
Sexual Rights-Related Panels
Panel discussion on challenges and good practices to realize the right to social security and to provide quality public services [accessible panel]
Theme: Realizing the right to social security and strengthening social security systems
Time: Friday, 8 March 2024, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities [accessible panel]
Theme: Good practices of support systems enabling community inclusion of persons with disabilities
Time: Monday, 11 March 2024, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child [accessible panel]
Theme morning panel: Rights of the child and inclusive social protection
Theme afternoon panel: Child rights mainstreaming in the United Nations
Time: Thursday, 14 March 2024, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
See the list of all panels and concept notes
Sexual Rights-Related Reports
A/HRC/55/34
Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Good practices of support systems enabling communicate inclusion of persons with disabilities
A/HRC/55/35
Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities
A/HRC/55/37
Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Necessary measures for minimizing the adverse impact of climate change on the full realization of the right to food
Read the report when it becomes available »
A/HRC/55/42
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights
Summary of the biennial Human Rights Council panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures and human rights
A/HRC/55/43
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Business, planetary boundaries, and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
A/HRC/55/44
Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Right to science
Read the report when it becomes available »
A/HRC/55/45
Report of the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
The right to education for persons with albinism
A/HRC/55/46
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
Legal safeguards for personal data protection and privacy in the digital age
A/HRC/55/48
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
Vision and priorities
A/HRC/55/49
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Fisheries and the right to food in the context of climate change
A/HRC/55/50
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
"We are not just the future": challenges faced by child and youth human rights defenders
A/HRC/55/51
Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues
Read the report when it becomes available »
A/HRC/55/52
Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Current issues and good practices in prison management
A/HRC/55/53
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing
Resettlement after evictions and displacement - Addressing a human rights crisis
Read the report when it becomes available »
A/HRC/55/54
Report of the Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights
Fiscal legitimacy through human rights: a principled approach to the financial resource collection and allocation for the realization of human rights
A/HRC/55/56
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
Rights of persons with disabilities
A/HRC/55/59
Report on the ninth session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights
A/HRC/55/59/Add.1
Text of the updated draft legally binding instrument with the textual proposals submitted by States during the ninth session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights
A/HRC/55/69
Activities of the special rapporteurs, special representatives, independent experts and chairs of working groups of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council undertaken in 2023
Read the report when it becomes available »
A/HRC/55/19
Report of the Secretary-General
Conclusions and recommendations of special procedures in 2023
A/HRC/55/60
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
Model protocol for law enforcement officials to promote and protect human rights in the context of peaceful protests
UPR Outcomes
The 55th session will include the adoption of the outcomes of countries reviewed during the 44th working group session of the Universal Periodic Review, which took place from 06 November to 17 November 2023. The council will adopt all 14 outcomes from the reviews of the following countries: Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tuvalu, Germany, Djibouti, Canada, Bangladesh, Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, and Cuba.
Among the 14 outcomes to be adopted during this session, the SRI collaborated on reports with organisations and activists in preparing reports for the UPR reviews of Canada and Azerbaijan.
Canada
Collaborators: Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW), YWCA Hamilton, The Community Research Platform at McMaster University, and the Sexual Rights Initiative
Key words: Sexual and reproductive rights, access to abortion, homelessness, migration, systemic racism, right to health, bodily autonomy, reproductive justice
Canada
Collaborators: Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, and the Sexual Rights Initiative
Key words: Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA), criminalisation of sex work, rights of sex workers
Azerbaijan
Collaborators: Social Charitable Center Women and Modern World (CWMW) and the Sexual Rights Initiative
Key words: Gender inequality, gender stereotypes, son preference, child marriage, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence, rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people
Sexual Rights Initiative Events
Save the date!
Political Economy of Sexual Rights
Side-event during the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council
12 March 2023 - 14h00 - 15h00 CET
Room XXV, Palais des Nations
Despite the core and often repeated tenet that human rights are indivisible and interdependent, rights are mostly understood and articulated in individualistic and decontextualised ways that align with neoliberal conceptions of the market, the individual, the state and global governance. As the world faces multiple human rights crises, including wars, genocide, the climate emergency and post-pandemic impacts, one certainty is that until all human rights and fundamental freedoms are adopted universally by everyone, we won't be able to build back better. It is also incumbent upon everyone to embody the idea of indivisibility of all human rights that they are linked to each other and not carved out in separate corners. As multilateral and human rights institutions face a legitimacy crisis, it is essential to understand that intersectional analysis of human rights necessarily means resisting the instrumentalisation of rights of sexual rights, by states, corporations or other agencies.
Join us for this side event that will ground sexual rights and bodily autonomy in the social and political contexts, highlighting that there can be no hierarchy of rights. The side event builds on the three conversations the SRI held last on the political economy of sexual rights, the analysis from conversation one, conversation two and conversation three.