A/HRC/15/17 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 8 September 2010 Original: English Human Rights Council Fifteenth session Agenda item 1 Organizational and procedural matters Conference servicing and secretariat support for the Human Rights Council Report of the Secretary-General* I. Introduction 1. On 1 October 2009, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 12/1 entitled “Open-ended intergovernmental working group on the review of the work and functioning of the Human Rights Council”, in which it requested the Secretary-General to present a report to the Council at its fifteenth session on how to improve conference and secretariat services for the Council. II. Background 2. Since 2006, when the General Assembly established, in its resolution 60/251, the Human Rights Council as a subsidiary organ of the Assembly, there has been a steady evolution in the servicing requirements of the Council and its related mechanisms. In September 2008, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), pursuant to Council resolution 8/1, submitted a report on conference facilities and financial support for the Council (A/HRC/9/18). The report was based on a joint review by OHCHR and the Division of Conference Management of the document processing and submission situation and an assessment by the Department of Public Information of the information servicing requirements of the Council, including the proposal to webcast all proceedings of Council working groups. The report included an assessment by the Division of the situation relating to the submission of documents to the Council, including those concerning the universal periodic review, and in particular of delays in the translation of documents into the six official languages of the United Nations. In the report, OHCHR noted that the lack of permanent capacity in translation, editing and documents processing and the difficulties associated with recruiting freelancers in the Geneva area constrained the * GE.10-15956 Late submission.