A/HRC/33/56 III. Organization of the session A. Attendance 15. The Expert Mechanism held its ninth session in Geneva, from 11 to 15 July 2016. The members, Albert Kwokwo Barume (Democratic Republic of the Congo), International Chief Wilton Littlechild (Canada), Edtami Mansayagan (Philippines), Alexey Tsykarev (Russian Federation) and Erika M. Yamada (Brazil) took part in the session. 16. The participants of the session also included representatives of States, parliaments, indigenous peoples, United Nations programmes, bodies and specialized agencies, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions (see annex I for a complete listing). 17. Also participating in the session were: Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Alvaro Pop Ac, Chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Binota Dhamai, member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples; and the advisers to the President of the General Assembly on the question of enhancing indigenous peoples’ participation at the United Nations, Kai Sauer (Finland), Sammie Eddico (representing Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Ghana), Claire Charters and James Anaya. B. Documentation 18. The Expert Mechanism had before it the provisional agenda with annotations (A/HRC/EMRIP/2016/1), the draft study on the right to health and indigenous peoples, with a focus on children and youth, and the report on the expert workshop on the review of the Expert Mechanism’s mandate (A/HRC/32/26). 19. The Expert Mechanism also had before it the following: a draft summary of responses to the questionnaire seeking the views of States and indigenous peoples on best practices regarding possible appropriate measures and implementation strategies in order to attain the goals of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; a report entitled “The Finno-Ugric peoples and sustainable development: health of indigenous peoples”; a report of the monitoring mechanism on the implementation of the Declaration in Aotearoa/New Zealand; and a final compilation of views on enabling indigenous peoples’ participation in the United Nations (8 July 2016) and the addendum thereto. C. Opening 20. Mr. Tsykarev, outgoing Chair-Rapporteur of the Expert Mechanism, opened the session and introduced Ramón Alberto Morales Quijano, Vice-President of the Human Rights Council. 21. The Vice-President of the Council recognized the importance of the participation of indigenous peoples in United Nations processes and thanked the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples for supporting the participation of 20 indigenous representatives at the session. He noted the important work undertaken by the Expert Mechanism and expressed hope that the review of the Expert Mechanism would strengthen its mandate to promote implementation of the Declaration at both the international and national level. In addressing the right to health and indigenous peoples, he highlighted the 7