A/HRC/18/36 I. Introduction 1. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary International Standards (Ad Hoc Committee) submits the present report pursuant to Human Rights Council decisions 3/103 and 10/30 and resolution 6/21. II. Organization of the session 2. The Ad Hoc Committee held the first part of its third session from 22 to 23 November 2010 and the second part from 11 to 21 April 2011. During the first part of the session, the Ad Hoc Committee held two meetings; during the second part, it held nine meetings. A. Attendance 3. The session was attended by representatives of Member States, non-Member States represented by observers, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and NGOs not in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. B. Opening of the session 4. The first meeting of the third session of the Ad Hoc Committee was opened on 22 November 2010. The session had been scheduled to be held from 22 November to 3 December 2010 and a draft agenda (A/HRC/AC.1/3/1) had been circulated. Yury Boychenko, Chief of the Anti-Discrimination Unit, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed the delegates and, noting that the position of Chairperson-Rapporteur for the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards remained vacant, suspended the meeting in order to hold further informal consultations with the regional groups of States on the matter. 5. The second meeting of the third session of the Ad Hoc Committee took place on 23 November. At that meeting, Mr. Boychenko reported to the Committee on the results of his consultations. Owing to scheduling by Conference Services, he reported that it would likely be possible to carry forward only one week of interpretation if the third session was resumed in 2011; however, the secretariat would continue to investigate the possibility of a two-week meeting slot in 2011 without prejudice to the regular fourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee scheduled to take place in the autumn of 2011. The Secretariat would also seek to clarify the issue of availability of resources for both the resumed third and the fourth sessions (including a two-week resumed third session). As no ChairpersonRapporteur had been identified, the third session was suspended sine die. 6. The resumed third session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards took place from 11 to 21 April 2011. The third meeting was opened on 11 April 2011 by the secretariat. Mr. Boychenko addressed the delegates, noting the positive pre-sessional consultations which had recently taken place between regional groups. He encouraged those groups to continue to work towards finding a comfort zone within which a constructive debate could be held and common ground could be found to work on anti-discrimination issues. He hoped that the Committee would be able to mark a new start in terms of openness, cooperation and consensus among members and participants. 3