Chairwoman Hautala met on 14th of April with Ms Kyung-wha Kang, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights to discuss the cooperation between the European Parliament and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. [:]

There is great interest in seeing the upcoming review of the UN Human Rights Council achieve concrete improvements in the working methods of the Council but Ms Hautala underlined that it is of utmost importance that the independence of the Office of the High Commissioner be preserved and defended. In this regard, strong support by the EU member states is of utmost importance, she stressed.

Strong support to the work and functioning of the Office of High Commissioner by the EU member states is of great importance also with regards the day to day life of the Office and for this also the Parliament should remain mindful of.

Deputy High Commissioner welcomed the interest to look into intensifying the cooperation between her office and the European Parliament and invited the Subcommittee on Human Rights to continue more detailed discussion on this with her Office.