A/HRC/12/46 page 15 4. Advisory Committee 44. The Human Rights Council in resolution 6/30 requested the Advisory Committee to integrate regularly and systematically a gender perspective into the implementation of its mandate, including when examining the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination against women, and to include in its reports information on and qualitative analysis of human rights of women and girls. 45. At its first session, in August 2008, the Advisory Committee requested five of its members to prepare draft guidelines on methods to operationalize gender mainstreaming at all levels (recommendation 1/4). These were discussed by the Advisory Committee at its second session, held in January 2009 (A/HRC/AC/2/CRP.4). At the latter session, the Advisory Committee also recommended (recommendation 2/4) that the Council authorize the Committee to prepare draft guidelines on methods to enhance implementation of gender mainstreaming, including action-oriented mechanisms within the Council and all other organs within the United Nations system, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders. At its tenth session, the Council noted that the Committee’s recommendation with regard to gender mainstreaming might be addressed in the context of the work of the Council at its future sessions (President’s statement PRST 10/1). 5. Special sessions 46. General Assembly resolution 60/251 which created the Human Rights Council states in paragraph 10 that the Council “shall be able to hold special sessions when needed at the request of a member of the Council with the support of one third of the membership of the Council”. In 2007, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, during his interactive dialogue with the Council, urged member States to hold the first thematic special session on maternal mortality, noting that the figures of women who die during or after giving birth dwarf the numbers of extrajudicial and summary executions and disappearances each year. Although the Council did not respond to the choice of theme, it has held two thematic special sessions, concerning the global food crisis and the impact of the financial crisis. 47. At the seventh special session, held in May 2008, on the negative impact on the realization of the right to food of the world food crisis, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food pointed out that reactions to the increase in the global prices of food included the withdrawal of children, particularly girls, from school and malnutrition among preschool-age children, with possible dramatic and irreversible consequences. At the ninth special session, held in February 2009 and devoted to the global financial crisis, speakers referred to the need to take the impact of the crisis on women into account. Yet, aside from these general references, none of the sessions provided for in-depth gender analysis. 48. An obvious test for the Human Rights Council as to how well it integrates a gender perspective was its eighth special session, held in November/December 2008, on the situation of human rights in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The High Commissioner for Human Rights in her opening statement noted that of particular concern was “the unparalleled violence against women, including rape”. The Council adopted resolution S-8/1. While it is