As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) from 2017-2019, Croatia has been elected on behalf of the Eastern European Group as vice-chair and member of the Bureau. Pursuant to that, Permanent Representative in Geneva Vesna Batistić Kos assumed the duty of UNHRC vice-president and rapporteur, and for the first time in that role 22 January 2019 chaired Chile’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Council is chaired in 2019 by Senegal, with Argentina, Croatia, Fiji and Iceland serving as vice-chairs and members of the Bureau.
The Bureau is the organizational body of the UNHRC, led by the Council president and composed of four vice-presidents from regional groups elected to one-year terms. Members of the Bureau chair the sessions of the UNHRC and the UPR Working Group, and perform a number of other tasks that ensure the successful functioning of the Council.