A/HRC/10/29 Part Two Summary of proceedings I. Organizational and procedural matters A. Opening and duration of the session 1. The Human Rights Council held its tenth session at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 2 to 27 March 2009. The President of the Council opened the session. 2. At the opening, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights addressed the plenary. 3. At the 12th meeting, on 9 March 2009, the High Commissioner made a statement for International Women’s Day. 4. In accordance with rule 8 (b) of the rules of procedure of the Council, as contained in part VII of the annex to Council resolution 5/1, the organizational meeting of the tenth session was held on 16 February 2009. 5. B. The tenth session consisted of 45 meetings over 20 days (see paragraph 29 below). Attendance 6. The session was attended by representatives of States Members of the Council, observer States of the Council, observers for non-member States of the United Nations and other observers, as well as observers for United Nations entities, specialized agencies and related organizations, intergovernmental organizations and other entities, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations (see annex I). C. High-level segment 7. At the 1st to the 5th meetings, the Council held a high-level segment, at which 64 dignitaries addressed the plenary, including 2 vice-presidents, 3 vice-prime ministers, 39 ministers, 19 vice-ministers and the President of the General Assembly. 8. The following dignitaries addressed the Council during the high-level segment, in the order that they spoke: (a) At the 1st meeting, on 2 March 2009: Francisco Santos Calderón, Vice-President of Colombia; Mohamed Waheed, Vice-President of Maldives; Paulo Vannuchi, Minister for Human Rights of Brazil; Abdelwahad Radi, Minister for Justice of Morocco; Sven Alkalaj, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights of Sri Lanka; (b) At the 2nd meeting, on the same day: Paul Mba Abessole, Vice-Prime Minister of Gabon; Manouchehr Mottaki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Miroslav Lajčák, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia; Hoda Abdullatif Alban, Minister for Human Rights of Yemen; Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aban, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Saudi Arabia; Mufid Shehab, Minister for Legal and Parliamentary Councils of Egypt; Ould Dadde, Commissioner for Human Rights, Humanitarian Action and Relations with Civil Society of Mauritania; Alberto van Klaveren, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chile; Hussein Al-Zuheiri, Under- 88 GE.09-17451