The 47th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council has concluded. The session was held from 21 June to 14 July 2021 and was conducted almost entirely virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

The Bulgarian delegation was headed by H.E. Ambassador Yuri Sterk, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. Ambassador Yuri Sterk, having been elected earlier this year as one of the Vice-presidents of the Human Rights Council, chaired six of the meetings of the 47th session.

In its third year as a member-state of the Human Rights Council, Bulgaria continued to actively participate in the Council’s deliberations by making national statements on three country situations, namely on Belarus, Ukraine and Myanmar, as well as on three thematic topics – on the right to health, the right to education and on the fight against trafficking in persons.

The Human Rights Council concluded its session by adopting 25 resolutions and 2 decisions. Bulgaria co-authored as a main co-sponsor 14 of the resolutions, three of which – on the human rights situations in Belarus, in the Ethiopian’s Tigray region and in Eritrea, respectively, were among the top priorities of the European Union.