A/HRC/4/43 page 4 Introduction 1. Since 1994, annual meetings of special rapporteurs/representatives, experts and chairpersons of working groups of the special procedures and the advisory services programme of the Commission on Human Rights have been organized as a follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action underlined the importance of preserving and strengthening the system of special procedures and specified that the procedures and mechanisms should be enabled to harmonize and rationalize their work through periodic meetings (Part II, para. 95). 2. The thirteenth annual meeting of special procedures was held in Geneva from 19 to 23 June 2006. It had before it a provisional annotated agenda and a series of documents prepared by the Secretariat. 3. A list of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and those attending the thirteenth annual meeting appears in annex I. 4. Mandate-holders participated in the opening ceremony of the first session of the Human Rights Council. During the meeting, mandate-holders held meetings with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and national institutions, and a joint meeting with participants at the eighteenth meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies. Participants further met with the High Commissioner, the Deputy High Commissioner and OHCHR senior managers. Mandate-holders also had an exchange with the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Chair of the Coordination Committee held an exchange of views with the Human Rights Council at its first session. 5. On the occasion of International Refugees Day, on 20 June, participants called on the international community to strengthen its support to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and to assist post-conflict societies to guarantee respect for all human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social, so as to allow for a safe return of refugees to their home countries. 6. Participants further welcomed the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. I. ORGANIZATION OF WORK 7. The meeting was opened by Philip Alston, the Chairperson of the twelfth annual meeting, who emphasized the importance of the thirteenth meeting as a crossroads for the special procedures in their relationship with the new Human Rights Council. 8. Vitit Muntarbhorn was elected Chairperson and Gay McDougall was elected Rapporteur of the thirteenth annual meeting. It was suggested that ahead of the fourteenth annual meeting consultations be undertaken for the nomination of the Chair and Rapporteur of the meeting. The desirability of including an interaction with United Nations agencies in the programme of the fourteenth meeting was flagged.