21/03/2013

Human Rights Council President met with Ambassador of Israel

The President of the Human Rights Council (the Council) presented to States on 15 March his oral report on the progress made to urge Israel to resume its cooperation with the Council. H.E. Remigiusz Achilles Henczel, Ambassador of Poland, announced that he addressed a letter to the Ambassador of Israel, H.E. Eviatar Manor, on 15 February and then met with him on 1st March. On the same day, the Ambassador of Israel responded in writing to the President's letter expressing its "appreciation of the President's efforts to secure the deferral of Israel's UPR" and concluding by "looking forward to continuing" the "dialogue on this and other matters".

The President will present his final report in June at the Council's 23rd session.

Israel had suspended its relations with the Council in a letter published on 14 May 2012. As a consequence, it did not submit a national report due in October 2012, was not present for the selection of its troika on 14 January 2013 and was absent for its own UPR on 29 January. In reaction, the Council adopted decision A/HRC/OM/7/1 deciding to reschedule its UPR in 2013, at the 17th Working Group session (21 October - 1 November 2013) at the latest, and calling upon Israel to resume its cooperation with the UPR mechanism. The HRC President was also requested to report at the 22nd and 23rd session of the HRC on his efforts to bring Israel back to the UPR.

Countries: Israel