The special session, due to begin at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), comes at the request of Iraq itself, with support from countries and blocs including the Arab Group, the European Union, Iran and the United States.

The text calls on the office of the U.N.‘s brand new High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jordan‘s Prince Zeid al-Hussein, to dispatch investigators to Iraq to probe abuses carried out by the group that shocked the world last month with its filmed beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley.