Justice Minister travels to Geneva for UN Human Rights Council 58th regular session
Addis Ababa, February 24, 2025 (FMC) – Ethiopia’s Minister of Justice, Ms. Hanna Arayaselassie has traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council fifty-eighth regular session.
The Minister is expected to address the event, and will also hold bilateral discussions with representatives of various countries and senior officials from the United Nations, according to the Ethiopian justice ministry.
Note that the UN Human Rights Council commenced its 58th regular session this morning. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the event is scheduled to be held from 24 February to 4 April 2025 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, starting with its high-level segment from 24 to 26 February, when dignitaries representing more than 100 Member States will address the Council.
The session opened at 9 a.m. this morning, 24 February, under the Presidency of Ambassador Jürg Lauber of Switzerland.
Delivering statements at the opening will be the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres; the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Philemon Yang; the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk; as well as the Chief of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis.
On Monday, 3 March, the Council is scheduled to hear a global update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights around the world. The general debate on his global update will start following his presentation of a number of country-specific reports and updates.
During the session, the Council will hold 30 interactive dialogues with the High Commissioner, his Office and designated experts, with Special Procedure mandate holders and investigative mechanisms, and with Special Representatives of the Secretary-General. The Council will also hold five enhanced interactive dialogues and one high-level dialogue, as well as nine general debates.
The Council will also hold theannual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming with a focus on the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;the biennial high-level panel on the death penalty; panel discussions on early warning and genocide, HIV response and leaving no one behind, and onrights to work and to social security; the annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities; the annual discussion on the rights of the child; and a commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The Council will examine the situation of human rights in a number of countries under its various agenda items, including the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Myanmar under agenda item two; in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Myanmar under agenda item four; and in Mali, Haiti, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic under agenda item 10.
The final outcomes of the Universal Periodic Review of14 States will also be considered, namely those of Norway, Albania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Portugal, Bhutan, Dominica, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Qatar and Nicaragua.
Towards the end of the session, the Council will appoint three new members of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.