The 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday decided to hold a special session on October 2 to examine the unrest in Myanmar.
GENEVA: The 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday decided to hold a special session on October 2 to examine the unrest in Myanmar, UN spokesman Rolando Gomez said.
"The president of the Council announced that he had received a request with 53 signatures, including 17 council members which is the one-third required to hold a special session on Myanmar," Gomez told.
"He said it would take place Tuesday," he added.
The move stepping up pressure on Myanmar's military rulers came as security forces in the country fired warning shots and launched baton charges on protesters Friday, trying to quell the biggest demonstrations against the junta in 20 years.
At least 13 people have been killed since the crackdown against mass protests led by Buddhist monks began on Wednesday.
Gomez said informal talks were taking place in Geneva to come up with a resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar during the session.
"It was the European Union that spearheaded this," he added.
The bloodshed has triggered intense international criticism of Myanmar's ruling generals, who have been trying to reassert their control and stifle the outpouring of public anger and frustration.
Shortly after the crackdown began, UN human rights chief Louise Arbour warned Myanmar authorities not to use excessive force against protestors and to allow peaceful expression of dissent.
"The use of excessive force and all forms of arbitrary detention of peaceful protesters are strictly prohibited under international law," the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
Arbour underlined that countries were obliged to respect fundamental rights including freedom from arbitrary killing or arrest, freedom from torture or cruel treatment, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
"The denial of these rights may constitute international crimes and could invoke individual criminal responsibility," the UN's top human rights official warned.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent a special envoy to Myanmar to try to open dialogue between the ruling junta and pro-democracy activists.
The envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, met government officials in Singapore on Friday during a stopover on his way to Myanmar.
Singapore is the current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose foreign ministers expressed their "revulsion" after the crackdown on Thursday in an unusually sharp statement against fellow ASEAN member Myanmar.
The US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has urged Myanmar's traditional allies, including Thailand, China, India and Russia, to press the military government to address the protests without violence.
"If the military government is going to listen to anyone, it will be countries with which it has close military and economic ties. Now is the time for these countries to show that they care about the health and welfare of the Burmese people," said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director.
In January, China and Russia vetoed a draft resolution at the UN Security Council in New York that would have urged Myanmar's rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence by the military.
Opponents of that draft argued that the Myanmar issue did not represent a threat to international peace and security and was best handled by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
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