The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session next week on the human rights situation in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, the UN office in Geneva announced on Tuesday.

The special session was set to be convened on Dec. 12 at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, the statement said, adding that the event had been requested by Finland and had gained the support of 33 member states of the top UN rights body.

The 47-state new Human Rights Council replaced its widely-discredited predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, in June. In addition to regular sessions, it can also hold special sessions on urgent situations.

But the new body has been criticized by the United States and some rights groups for only attacking Israel for violation of human rights and ignoring situations such as in Darfur.

The council had earlier held three special sessions on alleged Israeli abuses and passed resolutions denouncing the country's military operations in Lebanon and occupied Palestinian territories.

In his message to the Human Rights Council last week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the body to handle the Arab-Israeli conflict in an impartial way, and not to allow the issue to monopolize its attention.

In addition to the conflict in the Middle East, "there are surely other situations which would merit scrutiny by a special session of the Council," Annan said.

The UN secretary-general suggested that Darfur was a glaring case in point.

Source: Xinhua