The UN Human Rights Council held its fifty-eighth session from February 24 to April 4, 2025, at the UN headquarters in Geneva. This session, attended by representatives from governments, international organizations, specialized agencies, civil society representatives, and human rights experts, focused on the reports of the UN Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, special thematic and country rapporteurs, committees, and specialized working groups under ten specific items. As the main session of the council, the fifty-eighth session began with a high-level segment that included speeches by approximately 70 senior officials. Discussions centered around global human rights challenges, reaffirmation of commitments to the council’s work, and addressing specific country crises.

The Association for Protection of Refugee Women and Children (HAMI) took effective steps to participate in this session by registering three written statements and delivering an oral statement on its specialized topics. During the fourth week of the council, it also had the opportunity to attend this session (March 17-21). The association’s representative engaged in several activities, including participation in the main hall, attending side panels, contributing to drafting related resolutions, and meeting with relevant officials.

It is worth noting that the High Commissioner presented reports on the global human rights situation, Palestine, Sudan, Eritrea, Myanmar, and Ukraine to the council, followed by an interactive dialogue. Additionally, special rapporteurs and country fact-finding missions from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Nicaragua, Mali, Haiti, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, Belarus, North Korea, and Myanmar submitted their latest reports to the council. During the first three weeks, the council also heard updates from special rapporteurs on various topics, including torture, freedom of opinion and religion, transitional justice, human rights defenders, cultural rights, adequate housing, individuals affected by albinism, persons with disabilities, external debts, the right to food, counter-terrorism, privacy, child prostitution and pornography, the environment, and the Secretary-General’s special representatives on violence against children and children in armed conflicts, based on prior council resolutions. Ultimately, over 80 reports on various topics were examined in the council’s agenda.

The HRC held nine specialized panels on the following topics:

• Annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming: Thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
• Biennial high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty: Contribution of the judiciary to the advancement of human rights and the question of the death penalty
• Panel discussion on early warning and genocide prevention
• Panel discussion on the realization of human rights in sustaining and increasing the gains made in the HIV response and leaving no one behind
• Panel discussion on the realization of the rights to work and to social security in the informal economy
• Annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities: Rights of persons with disabilities: digital and assistive technologies, countering cyberbullying, and digital inclusion
• Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child [two accessible panels]: Early childhood development

• Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: ​Sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Interactive dialogues were held under ten working items, featuring speeches by representatives of member and observer states, as well as NGOs. Additionally, the approval of the outcomes of the universal periodic review of the countries Norway, Albania, Congo, Ivory Coast, Portugal, Bhutan, Dominica, North Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, Qatar, and Nicaragua was another activity in the session.