DEC/22/115 Human Rights Council webcast

GE.13-13067

Human Rights Council Twenty-second session

Agenda item 1 Organizational and procedural matters

Decision adopted by the Human Rights Council

22/115.

Human Rights Council webcast

At its 47th meeting, on 21 March 2013, the Human Rights Council decided to adopt the text below:

“The Human Rights Council,

Recalling Human Rights Council resolution 16/21 of 25 March 2011 on the review of the work and functioning of the Human Rights Council, in particular paragraph 61 of the annex thereto, in which the Council decided to establish a task force to study the issues of secretariat services, accessibility for persons with disabilities and use of information technology, as envisaged in paragraphs 57, 58, 59 and 60 of the annex,

Recalling also Human Rights Council decision 19/119 of 22 March 2012, in which the Council endorsed the report of the task force, annexed to decision 19/119, including its recommendations with the modalities made in the report,

Recalling further General Assembly resolution 66/246 of 24 December 2011, in which the Assembly stressed the importance of an open, transparent and all-inclusive United Nations, and decided to approve the live webcasting and subsequent storage of all the formal meetings of its six Main Committees,

Taking note of the current arrangement between the Department of Public Information, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Information Service, which relies mainly on extrabudgetary resources to fund webcast coverage of the meetings of the Human Rights Council,

Recalling the added value of the live webcasting and subsequent storage of the formal meetings held in the framework of the sessions of the Human Rights Council and the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, which constitute archive records of Council meetings, in particular in view of the lack of summary records, as well as being an important tool for public outreach,

 The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of

the Council on its twenty-second session (A/HRC/22/2), chap. I.

Recommends that the General Assembly consider ways to ensure sustainable live webcasting and subsequent storage of the meetings of the Human Rights Council held in the framework of the sessions of the Council and of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.”