Distr. GENERAL

E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/1

9 June 2000

Original: ENGLISH

PROVISIONAL AGENDA

Note by the Secretary-General

Duration and venue of the session

1. The fifty-second session of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights will be held at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 31 July to 18 August 2000.* The first meeting will be convened at 10.30 a.m. on Monday, 31 July 2000.

Provisional agenda

2. The provisional agenda,** prepared in accordance with rule 5 of the rules of procedure of the functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, is reproduced below.

Inter-sessional, pre-sessional and post-sessional working groups

3. In accordance with relevant decisions, the fifty-second session of the Sub-Commission will be preceded by meetings of three working groups and followed by a meeting of one working group as follows:

(a) Working Group on Minorities, established pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 1995/31 of 25 July 1995. This working group of five members of the Sub-Commission met for five working days, from 22 to 26 May 2000;

(b) Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, established pursuant to Economic and Social Council decision 16 (LVI) of 17 May 1974. In accordance with the arrangements endorsed by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1993/27 of 5 March 1993, this working group of five members of the Sub-Commission will meet for eight working days prior to the fifty-second session of the Sub-Commission, from 14 to 23 June 2000;

(c) Working Group on Indigenous Populations, established pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 1982/34 of 7 May 1982. This working group of five members of the Sub-Commission will meet for five working days prior to the fifty-second session of the Sub-Commission, from 24 to 28 July 2000;

(d) Working Group on Communications, established under Sub-Commission resolution 2 (XXIV) in accordance with paragraph 1 of Economic and Social Council resolution 1503 (XLVIII) of 27 May 1970. Pursuant to the revised procedure for dealing with communications concerning human rights proposed by the Commission on Human Rights for approval by the Economic and Social Council (see Commission decision 2000/109, annex B, draft resolution), this working group of five members of the Sub-Commission will meet for two weeks immediately following the fifty-second session of the Sub-Commission, from 21 August to 1 September 2000.

In-sessional working groups

4. Since its thirty-fourth session in 1981, the Sub-Commission has established a sessional working group to assist it in relation to its annual review of developments concerning the human rights of persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment. At its forty-sixth session in 1994, the Sub-Commission established a sessional working group on the administration of justice and the question of compensation in place of a sessional working group on detention.

5. The Sub-Commission may wish to consider establishing such a sessional working group at its fifty-second session.

6. At its fiftieth session, the Sub-Commission, in resolution 1998/8, decided to establish, for a three-year period, a sessional working group of the Sub-Commission, composed of five of its members, to examine the working methods and activities of transnational corporations.

Annotations

7. The annotations to the items listed in the provisional agenda will be issued as an addendum to the present document.

Provisional agenda

1. Organization of work:

(a) Election of officers;

(b) Adoption of the agenda;

(c) Methods of work of the Sub-Commission.

2. Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial discrimination and segregation, in all countries, with particular

reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories: report of the Sub-Commission under Commission on Human Rights resolution 8 (XXIII).

3. Comprehensive examination of thematic issues relating to the elimination of racial discrimination:

(a) Situation of migrant workers and members of their families;

(b) Xenophobia.

4. The realization of economic, social and cultural rights:

(a) The international economic order and the promotion of human rights;

(b) The realization of the right to development;

(c) The question of transnational corporations;

(d) The realization of the right to education, including education in human rights.

5. The implementation of human rights with regard to women:

(a) Traditional practices affecting the health of women and the girl child;

(b) The role and equal participation of women in development.

6. Contemporary forms of slavery.

7. Human rights of indigenous peoples:

(a) Indigenous peoples and their relationship to land.

8. Prevention of discrimination against and the protection of minorities.

9. The administration of justice and human rights:

(a) Question of human rights and states of emergency;

(b) Application of international standards concerning the human rights of detained juveniles;

(c) Gross and massive violations of human rights as an international crime;

(d) Juvenile justice;

(e) Privatization of prisons;

(f) Individualization of prosecution and penalties, and repercussions of violations of human rights on families.

10. Freedom of movement:

(a) The right to leave any country, including one's own, and to return to one's own country, and the right to seek asylum from persecution;

(b) Human rights and population displacements.

11. Situation regarding the promotion, full realization and protection of the rights of children and youth.

12. Review of further developments in fields with which the Sub-Commission has been or may be concerned:

(a) Review of developments concerning recommendations and decisions relating, inter alia, to:

(i) Promotion, protection and restoration of human rights at national, regional and international levels;

(ii) Elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief;

(iii) Encouragement of universal acceptance of human rights instruments and observance of the human rights and fundamental freedoms contained in the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights by States which are not parties to United Nations human rights conventions;

(b) Review of issues not previously the subject of studies but which the

Sub-Commission had decided to examine:

(i) Implications of humanitarian activities for the enjoyment of human rights;

(ii) Terrorism and human rights;

(iii) International peace and security as an essential condition for the enjoyment of human rights, above all the right to life;

(c) Human rights and disability;

(d) Human rights and scientific and technological developments;

(e) Other new developments:

(i) Adverse consequences of the transfer of arms and illicit trafficking in arms on the enjoyment of human rights;

(ii) Arbitrary deprivation of nationality.

13. Concluding items:

(a) Consideration of the future work of the Sub-Commission;

(b) Draft provisional agenda for the fifty-third session of the Sub-Commission;

(c) Adoption of the report on the fifty-second session.

* Subject to approval by the Economic and Social Council, at its substantive session of 2000, of the recommendation of the Commission on Human Rights that the annual session of the Sub-Commission shall, from this year, be of three weeks' duration (Commission decision 2000/109, annex B, draft decision 5).

** Based on the draft provisional agenda for the fifty-second session of the Sub-Commission as contained in the report of the Sub-Commission on its fifty-first session (E/CN.4/2000/2-E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/54, para. 284), and revised on the basis of the expected adoption by the Economic and Social Council of a resolution concerning the review of the procedure for dealing with communications concerning human rights (see Commission decision 2000/109, annex B, draft resolution).