E/2012/27 E/CN.6/2012/16 Chapter VII Organization of the session A. Opening and duration of the session 1. The Commission on the Status of Women held its fifty-sixth session at United Nations Headquarters on 14 March 2011 and from 27 February to 9 March and on 15 March 2012. The Commission held 19 meetings (1st to 19th). 2. The session was opened by the Chair, Marjon V. Kamara (Liberia), who also made a statement. 3. At the 2nd meeting, on 27 February 2012, statements were made by the President of the Economic and Social Council and the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. 4. At the same meeting, statements were made by the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and by the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. 5. Also at the same meeting, two keynote speakers, Anne Tutwiler, Deputy Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Elisabeth Atangana, President of the Plateforme régionale des organisations paysannes d’Afrique centrale, addressed the Commission. B. Attendance 6. The session was attended by representatives of 45 States members of the Commission. Observers for other States Members of the United Nations and for non-member States, representatives of organizations of the United Nations system and observers for intergovernmental, non-governmental and other organizations also attended. The list of participants is contained in document E/CN.6/2012/INF/1. C. Election of officers 7. In accordance with paragraph 2 of Economic and Social Council resolution 1987/21, the officers are elected to the Bureau of the Commission for a term of office of two years. The following officers were elected at the 1st and 2nd meetings of the fifty-sixth session, on 14 March 2011 and 27 February 2012, to serve on the Bureau of the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh sessions: Chair: Marjon Kamara (Liberia) Vice-Chairs: Irina Velichko (Belarus) Carlos Enrique García González (El Salvador) Ana Marie Hernando (Philippines) Vice-Chair and Rapporteur: Filippo Cinti (Italy) 48 12-27405