A/HRC/DEC/19/119
documentation processing capacity of the United Nations Office at Geneva, in particular its
translating and editing capacity.
10.
When preparing annual calendars in the future, measures aiming at avoiding backto-back sessions of the Human Rights Council and the Working Group on the Universal
Periodic Review should be taken.
11.
Measures should be taken by the Secretariat to ensure the timely submission (Office
of the High Commissioner), processing and publication (United Nations Office at Geneva)
of Human Rights Council pre-session documents. In the event of delay, the Secretariat
should, to the greatest extent possible, provide information on the expected date of public
release of delayed documents.
12.
The Office of the High Commissioner should post advance edited Human Rights
Council pre-session documents on the website of the Office as early as possible, in order to
facilitate their consideration by the Council or its working groups and other subsidiary
bodies.
13.
In exceptional circumstances, workload sharing should be considered by the
Department for General Assembly and Conference Management between various duty
stations for the processing of documents, whenever the United Nations Office at Geneva
does not have sufficient capacity to process all documents in a timely manner, ahead of
Human Rights Council-related meetings.
14.
The Department for General Assembly and Conference Management and the Fifth
Committee are encouraged to take the measures necessary to meet the demands of
sustainable webcast coverage of the sessions of the Human Rights Council and the Working
Group on the Universal Periodic Review, including by strengthening the capacity of the
Department of Public Information in Geneva. In future, webcast coverage of other Council
meetings could be considered.
V.
Accessibility for persons with disabilities
A.
General remarks
15.
According to paragraph 58 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 16/21,
there is a need to enhance accessibility for persons with disabilities to the Council and the
work of its mechanisms, including its information and communication technology, Internet
resources and documents, in accordance with international standards on accessibility for
persons with disabilities.
16.
Over the past two decades, the General Assembly has adopted a series of resolutions
on persons with disabilities. In its resolution 65/186 of 21 December 2010, the Assembly
requested the Secretary-General to continue to improve accessibility and full inclusion of
persons with disabilities. In this context, an interdepartmental task force was established at
Headquarters, under the chairmanship of the Department for General Assembly and
Conference Management, to develop Secretariat-wide policies and standards to ensure the
participation of persons with disabilities in the work of the United Nations. In the same
vein, specialized agencies and programmes of the United Nations are also taking steps to
improve accessibility to their work (including accessibility of information and
communication technologies, physical facilities and human resources policies).
17.
Since its creation, the Human Rights Council has requested, in its annual resolutions
on persons with disabilities, that the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner
continue the progressive implementation of standards and guidelines for the accessibility of
facilities and services of the United Nations system, also taking into account relevant
provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and underlined that
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