The 20th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council commenced its work at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 18 June 2012. During the 3-week session its participants will consider wide range of actual human rights issues with the emphasis placed on rights of women and on combating xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance. The Council’s special attention will be paid to the situation of human rights in Syria and Belarus through relevant interactive dialogues.

Further, a number of interactive dialogues with the Council’s independent human rights experts will be hold, including one with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The delegation of Ukraine, headed by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine in Geneva Ambassador Mykola Maimeskul, participates in the work of the session as an observer.