United Nations General Assembly A/HRC/PRST/25/1 Distr.: General 15 April 2014 English Original: French Human Rights Council Twenty-fifth session Agenda item 10 Technical assistance and capacity-building President’s statement PRST 25/1 Situation of human rights in Haiti At the fifty-sixth meeting of the Human Rights Council, held on 28 March 2014, the President of the Council made the following statement: “1. The Human Rights Council expresses its gratitude to the Independent Expert for his report on the situation of human rights in Haiti.1 It takes note of the latest legal and political developments in Haiti, which have been marked by progress in terms of civil and political rights and of economic, social and cultural rights: (a) The submission of the initial report of Haiti on the rights of persons with disabilities to the secretariat of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 20 March 2014; (b) The recent decision of the Port-au-Prince Court of Appeals to order that further enquiries be undertaken in the case of former President for Life JeanClaude Duvalier; (c) The deposit, in December 2013, of the instrument of ratification of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, which will enter into force for Haiti on 1 April 2014; (d) The opening of an office to combat violence against women and girls on 27 November 2013 and the establishment of a parliamentary gender equity bureau on 2 December 2013; (e) The establishment of an ad hoc committee to oversee and assess cases of prolonged pretrial detention on 30 October 2013; (f) The accession, on 8 October 2013, to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which entered into force for Haiti on 8 January 2014; 1 A/HRC/25/71. GE.14-13666 (E) 230414 240414 *1413666*