UN rights council to hold special session on El Fasher human rights crisis

November 7, 2025 (GENEVA) – The United Nations Human Rights Council announced Friday it will hold a special session on November 14 to address the “human rights situation in and around El Fasher,” in the context of the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

The session, which will convene at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, was called following an official request submitted on Wednesday by the United Kingdom, jointly with Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway.

The request has so far been supported by 24 member states of the 47-member council, surpassing the one-third (16 members) required to convene a special session. An additional 31 observer states also backed the request.

This will be the 38th special session of the Human Rights Council. The council has previously held two special sessions on the situation in Sudan, one on November 5, 2021, and another on May 11, 2023.

In connection with the session, the council was scheduled to hold an open-ended informative consultation on its organization later on Friday.

According to the UN statement, this consultation was set to follow an organizational meeting for the universal periodic review of the United States, “should the United States of America not be present in the room to participate.”