A/HRC/7/29 page 5 I. INTRODUCTION 1. Annual meetings of special rapporteurs/representatives, experts and chairpersons of working groups of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council have been organized since 1994. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993 underlined the importance of preserving and strengthening the system of special procedures and specified that the procedures and mechanisms should be enabled to harmonize and rationalize their work through periodic meetings.1 2. The fourteenth annual meeting of special procedures was held in Geneva from 18 to 22 June 2007. It had before it a provisional annotated agenda and a series of documents prepared by mandate-holders, the Secretariat and other sources. 3. A list of the special procedures of the Council and mandate-holders attending the fourteenth annual meeting is contained in annex I. 4. During the meeting, mandate-holders had exchanges of views with the High Commissioner, the Deputy High Commissioner, the former President of the Council and the facilitator of the Working Group of the Council on the universal periodic review (UPR) mechanism. Participants also met with representatives of non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions, and held a joint meeting with participants in the nineteenth meeting of persons chairing human rights treaty bodies. II. ORGANIZATION OF WORK 5. The meeting was opened by Vitit Muntarbhorn, the Chairperson of the thirteenth annual meeting and Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures. 6. Participants elected Gay McDougall Chairperson of the fourteenth annual meeting and of the Coordination Committee. Vernor Muñoz Villalobos was elected Rapporteur of the meeting and member of the Committee. Yakin Ertürk, Okechukwu Ibeanu and Miloon Kothari were elected members of the Committee. The former Chairperson, Vitit Muntarbhorn, is an ex-officio member. 7. Participants expressed their appreciation for the process of nominations that had been undertaken by e-mail by the outgoing Chairperson and called for even earlier and broader consultations to be undertaken in 2008. 8. Meeting participants expressed their deep appreciation for the impressive work carried out throughout the year by the outgoing Chairperson and the other members of the Coordination Committee, in particular in connection with the review of mandates process of the Council. Participants also thanked the Special Procedures Branch for its support to the Committee and for keeping mandate-holders informed about Council developments throughout the year. 1 A/CONF.157/24 (Part II), para. 95.