On 15 March 2010, the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya, informed Member States that he had appointed two facilitators to conduct consultations on the review of the status of the Human Rights Council. They are Ambassador Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein and Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki of Morocco. The President's letterto Member States also set out the ‘considerable experience and knowledge’ of the two facilitators.

On 15 March 2010, the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya, informed Member States that he had appointed two facilitators to conduct consultations on the review of the status of the Human Rights Council. They are Ambassador Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein and Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki of Morocco. The President's letterto Member States also set out the ‘considerable experience and knowledge’ of the two facilitators.

In addition to consulting members of the General Assembly in an ‘open, inclusive and transparent process’, the co-facilitators will ‘take into account’ the ‘experiences and views of the Human Rights Council’, and ‘consult and work closely with the Human Rights Council on the Review’. This broad mandate suggests that the co-facilitators will ask Member States in New York and Geneva about both aspects of the 2011 review, as set out  in General Assembly Resolution 60/251. This resolution which established the Council, also granted the General Assembly a mandate to review the status of the Council within five years (OP 1), and the Council a mandate to review its work and functioning five years after its establishment (OP 16).

In contrast to the Council, which established an open-ended working group on the review of the work and functioning of the Human Rights Council in October 2009 (Resolution 12/1), the General Assembly has been slower to take action on this matter. It was addressed by the President of the General Assembly when that body considered the Human Rights Council’s annual report on 30 October 2009. At that time, the President of the General Assembly advised that he had met with the President of the Human Rights Council to discuss the review and would continue to work closely with him on the matter. He emphasised the need for the Council to be adequately resourced to undertake its review, and encouraged the Assembly to begin its preparations in close cooperation with the Council.

Speaking at the same meeting of the General Assembly, the President of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Alex Van Meeuwen of Belgium, categorised the 2011 review as one of the main challenges for the Council and an important opportunity to 'fine-tune' some of its mechanisms. He warned that the review should not slow down the work of the Council, nor distract it from implementing its core mandate. He appealed to States and civil society to cooperate and collaborate in the process so that the UN’s human rights machinery would be strengthened. In terms of timeline, the President advised that the Council’s working group on the review would meet in the second half of 2010 and report to the 17^th session of the Council in June 2011.

The co-facilitators appointed by the President of the General Assembly are to begin work ‘during the 64^th session’ which is currently underway and will conclude in mid September 2010. However, there is some ambiguity about when the co-facilitators will conclude their work, and thus when the Assembly will complete its review of the status of the Council. The letter from the President of the General Assembly notes that Resolution 60/251 requires that the review of the status of the Council occur ‘within five years, i.e. before 15 March 2011’, however it also states that the Assembly’s review ‘is to be completed in the 65^th session’, which does not end until mid September 2011.

This flexibility in the General Assembly’s reporting timeline would overcome the conflicting reporting dates set out in Resolution 60/251. It would allow the Council to conclude its review and report to the General Assembly by mid 2011, and the Assembly would then have until September 2011 to conclude its own review process and take action on both reports.

ISHR's offices in Geneva and New York will closely follow and report on the 2011 review of the Council as it takes shape in both locations.