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Commission on Human Rights to hold special session on Middle East crisis
10 October -- The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has decided to hold a special session on the situation in the Middle East, a UN spokesman announced today.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that the bureau of the 53-member Geneva-based Commission, the UN's main policy-making body dealing with human rights issues, would meet tomorrow to decide on the dates of the special session.

The request for a special session to discuss the recent violence in the occupied territories and Israel was sent last week to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, by Algeria's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva on behalf of the Council of Arab Permanent Members of the League of Arab States.

In facilitating the request, the secretariat of the Commission sent letters to its 53 members asking whether they approved of holding a special session on the situation in the Middle East. Of the 50 replies, 48 countries were in favour of the idea, with one against and one abstaining. That fulfilled the requirement for taking a decision of this nature under the Commission's rules of procedure, which call for a simple majority of 27 members in favour for the initiative to pass.

In a related development, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights charged with monitoring the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories will visit the region from 11 to 15 October, according to a press statement released today by the UN in Geneva.

Giorgio Giacomelli will visit "in the context of the recent violence in the occupied Palestinian territories which has resulted in considerable loss of life" in order to gain first-hand insight into the present human rights situation there, the statement said.

High Commissioner Mary Robinson welcomed the visit and indicated her hope that all relevant human rights mechanisms would remain fully focused on the present situation, "which continues to be of great concern."