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7/28. Missing persons

60. At the time the Council adopted draft resolution A/HRC/7/L.33 (resolution 7/28), it had before it the statement of programme budget implications below. Inadvertently, the Council was not informed at the meeting that the resolution as amended would not entail any programme budget implications, since it did not include the appointment of an independent expert. Subsequently, the Secretariat informed the Council that it would inform the General Assembly, in a report on the revised estimates of decisions taken by the Council, on the required amendments to the statement to reflect the new terms of the resolution, which do not entail any additional resources.

61. Under the terms of paragraphs 11 and 25 of its draft resolution 7/L.33, the Council:

(a) Would decide to hold a panel discussion on the question of missing persons at its ninth session and to invite the experts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), delegates of Governments and non governmental organizations, as well as national human rights institutions and international organizations to participate therein;

(b) Would decide also to appoint an independent expert on missing persons to study the best practices including cases and facts on missing persons with the purpose of presenting that study to the Council at the ninth session.

62. For purposes of these estimates, it was assumed that the Council would dedicate a part of its ninth session to the panel discussion; the conference servicing costs of the panel were therefore expected to be met within the conference servicing entitlements of the Council. Travel and daily subsistence allowance requirements for the ICRC experts headquartered in Geneva to implement the activities called for in paragraph 24 were also not required.

63. Pursuant to the adoption of the draft resolution by the Council, a total amount of $53,500 would be required to implement the activities, arising from the terms of the resolution as follows:

(a) Travel of the independent expert for consultations, one country study and to present a report to the panel at the Council ($16,000);

(b) Staff costs at the P-3 level for three months to assist the independent expert ($37,500).

64. The requirements to implement the activities for the mandate of the independent expert referred to above have not been included under section 23, Human Rights, of the programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009. Although it was anticipated that an additional amount of $53,500 would be required for the biennium 2008-2009 under section 23, no additional resources were requested as the Secretariat would, to the extent possible, absorb the additional requirements within the appropriations for section 23, Human Rights, for the biennium 2008-2009.

65. A consolidated statement of requirements arising from the continuing review by the Council in response to General Assembly resolution 60/251 and potential absorptive capacity from reduced requirements arising from the amended programme of work under the programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009 will be reported to the Assembly. The Assembly will also be informed at that time of the continuing requirements beyond the biennium 2008-2009 relating to decisions made by the Council.