(Redirected from UN Human Rights Council)
The 'United Nations Human Rights Council' is an international body within the
United Nations System. Its stated purpose is to address
human rights violations. The Council is the successor to the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which was often criticised for the high-profile positions it gave to member states that did not guarantee the human rights of their own citizens.
[1]
The
United Nations General Assembly passed GA resolution 60/251 on
15 March 2006, which created the new human rights body, with the approval of 170 members of the (then) 191-nation Assembly. Only the
United States, the
Marshall Islands,
Palau, and
Israel voted against the Council's creation, claiming that it would have too little power and that there were insufficient safeguards to prevent human rights-abusing nations from taking control, as in the Commission it replaced.
Belarus,
Iran and
Venezuela abstained from the vote, and a further seven countries (
Central African Republic,
North Korea,
Equatorial Guinea,
Georgia,
Kiribati,
Liberia and
Nauru) were absent from the session.
The Council has been criticized in 2007 for its strong stance against Israel, which it has condemned nine times while condemning no other countries for human rights abuses. The
United States,
European Union, UN Secretary-Generals
Kofi Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon and the media have questioned why the Council would focus singularly on Israel in light of human rights situations such as those in
Sudan,
North Korea,
Myanmar, and other places around the world.
Council structure
The 47-seat Human Rights Council replaces the former 53-member Commission on Human Rights. The Commission was an independent body, but the Council has been elevated to the status of a subsidiary body of the Assembly. The 47 seats in the Council are distributed among the UN's regional groups as follows: 13 for
Africa, 13 for
Asia, 6 for
Eastern Europe, 8 for
Latin America and the
Caribbean, and 7 for the
Western European and Others Group.
In an attempt to remedy problems of the former Commission, which was criticised among other actions for the election of
Libya to its chairmanship in 2003, the resolution establishing the Council specified that "members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights" and will be subject to periodic review. Each member nation of the Council must be approved individually and directly by a majority (96 of 191) of the members of the General Assembly, in a secret ballot. Council membership is limited to two consecutive terms, and any Council member may be suspended by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly. The Commission concluded its work on
16 June 2006, making way for the first meeting of the Council which was held on
19 -
30 June 2006.
Members
Members of the Council are elected to staggered three-year terms. The first election of members was held on
9 May 2006.
[2] The successful candidates were (year that the mandate expires is listed in parathesis):
''2007 Group''
[3]
★ '
African States':
Algeria,
Morocco,
South Africa, and
Tunisia.
★ '
Asian States':
Bahrain,
India,
Indonesia, and
Philippines.
★ '
Eastern European States':
Czech Republic, and
Poland.
★ '
Latin American & Caribbean States':
Argentina, and
Ecuador.
★ '
Western European & Other States':
Finland, and the
Netherlands.
''2008 Group''
[3]
★ '
African States':
Gabon,
Ghana,
Mali, and
Zambia.
★ '
Asian States':
Japan,
Pakistan,
South Korea, and
Sri Lanka.
★ '
Eastern European States':
Romania, and the
Ukraine.
★ '
Latin American & Caribbean States':
Brazil,
Guatemala, and
Peru.
★ '
Western European & Other States':
France, and the
United Kingdom.
''2009 Group''
[3]
★ '
African States':
Cameroon,
Djibouti,
Mauritius,
Nigeria, and
Senegal.
★ '
Asian States':
Bangladesh,
China,
Jordan,
Malaysia, and
Saudi Arabia.
★ '
Eastern European States':
Azerbaijan, and the
Russian Federation.
★ '
Latin American & Caribbean States':
Cuba,
Mexico, and
Uruguay.
★ '
Western European & Other States':
Canada,
Germany, and
Switzerland.
Their terms of office began on
19 June 2006. On
19 May it was announced that Mexico would serve as the Council's chair during its first year of existence.
The next group of states, to replace the "2007 Group", was duly elected by the General Assembly on
17 May 2007.
''2010 Group''
[3][7]
★ '
African States':
Madagascar,
South Africa,
Angola,
Egypt.
★ '
Asian States':
India,
Indonesia,
Philippines,
Qatar.
★ '
Eastern European States':
Slovenia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
★ '
Latin American & Caribbean States':
Nicaragua,
Bolivia.
★ '
Western European & Other States':
Netherlands,
Italy.
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
The
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is the main subsidiary body of the Human Rights Council. It is composed of 26 elected human rights experts whose mandate is to conduct studies on discriminatory practices and make recommendations to ensure that racial, national, religious and linguistic minorities are protected by law.
The experts sit on Working Groups that investigate the following issues:
★
Minorities
★
Transnational corporations
★ Administration of justice
★ Anti-
terrorism
★ Contemporary Forms of
Slavery
★
Indigenous Populations
★
Communication
★ Social Forum
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
Main articles: United Nations Special Rapporteur
"Special procedures" is the name given to the mechanisms established by the former
United Nations Commission on Human Rights and continued by the Human Rights Council to monitor human rights violations in specific countries or examine global human rights issues. Special procedures can be either individuals (called "
Special Rapporteurs", "Special Representatives" or "Independent Experts") who are leading
experts in a particular area of human rights, or working groups usually composed of five members. In order to preserve their independence they do not receive pay for their work.
Various activities can be undertaken by special procedures, including responding to individual complaints, conducting studies, providing advice on technical cooperation, and engaging in promotional activities. The special mechanisms are categorised according to thematic mandates and country mandates. Currently, there are 29 thematic and 13 country mandates under special procedures.
[8] The
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides staffing and logistical support to aid each mandate-holder in carrying out their work.
During its first session (
19-
30 June 2006), the Human Rights Council decided to extend the special procedures mandates for one year, subject to further review. An intergovernmental working group has been established to assess the mandates and make recommendations for improving their effectiveness.
Special procedures also include Working Groups made up of legal experts who monitor and investigate specific human rights concerns. There are currently three such groups:
★
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
★ Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances
★ Working Group on the use of
mercenaries to impede the right of peoples to
self-determination
Position of the United States
U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the United States would not seek a seat on the Council, saying it would be more effective from the outside. He did pledge, however, to support the Council financially.
State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said, "We will work closely with partners in the international community to encourage the council to address serious cases of human rights abuse in countries such as
Iran,
Cuba,
Zimbabwe,
Burma,
Sudan, and
North Korea."
A spokesman for
Kofi Annan expressed the
Secretary-General's disappointment that the United States had decided not to run for the Council, but he said that Annan hoped that the United States would reconsider in 2007.
U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton rejected a reporter's question which asked him if the United States thought that, after the alleged abuses in the
Abu Ghraib prison and at
Guantánamo Bay, the United States would be unable to muster the 96 votes from the
General Assembly necessary to gain a seat.
The U.S. State Department said on
5 March 2007 that, for the second year in a row, the United States has decided not to seek a seat on the Human Rights Council, asserting the body had lost its credibility with repeated attacks on
Israel and a failure to confront other rights abusers.
[9] Spokesman Sean McCormack said the council has had a “singular focus” on Israel, while countries such as Cuba,
Myanmar and North Korea have been spared scrutiny. He said that though the United States will have only an observer role, it will continue to shine a spotlight on human rights issues. The most senior
Republican member of the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the
U.S. House of Representatives,
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, supported the
administration decision. “Rather than standing as a strong defender of fundamental human rights, the Human Rights Council has faltered as a weak voice subject to gross political manipulation,” she said.
Upon passage of UNHRC's
June 2007 institution building package, the U.S. restated its condemnation of bias in the institution's agenda. Spokesman Sean McCormack again criticized the Commission for focusing on Israel in light of many more pressing human rights issues around the world, such as Sudan or Myanmar, and went on to criticise the termination of
Special Rapporteurs to
Cuba and
Belarus, as well as procedural irregularities that prevented member-states from voting on the issues; a similar critique was issued by the Canadian representative.
[10]
Council's position on Israel
The new UN Human Rights Council has specifically condemned only one country,
Israel. Meanwhile, in the cases of other countries with severe human rights abuses documented by the Council's own work groups, such as Sudan, it has only expressed "deep concern."
[11] It voted on
30 June 2006 to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by
Israel a permanent feature of every council session. The Council’s special rapporteur on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is its only expert mandate with no year of expiry. The resolution, which was sponsored by
Organization of the Islamic Conference, passed by a vote of 29 to 12 with five abstentions. By April of 2007, the Council had passed nine resolutions condemning Israel, and none condemning any other country.
More resolutions targeting Israel have been proposed for upcoming sessions.
Israel, the
United States and some human rights groups raised concerns about this revival of a practice of the UN's discredited former
Commission on Human Rights.
[12]
At its Second Special Session in
August 2006, the Council announced the establishment of a High-Level Commission of Inquiry charged with probing allegations that Israel systematically targeted and killed Lebanese civilians during the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
[13] The resolution was passed by a vote of 27 in favour to 11 against, with 8 abstentions. Before and after the vote several member states and NGOs objected that by targeting the resolution solely at Israel and failing to address
Hezbollah attacks on Israeli civilians, the Council risked damaging its credibility. The members of the Commission of Inquiry, as announced on
1 September 2006, are
Clemente Baena Soares of Brazil,
Mohamed Chande Othman of Tanzania, and
Stelios Perrakis of Greece. The Commission noted that its report on the conflict would be incomplete without fully investigating both sides, but that "the Commission is not entitled, even if it had wished, to construe [its charter] as equally authorizing the investigation of the actions by Hezbollah in Israel,"
[14] as the Council had explicitly prohibited it from investigating the actions of Hezbollah.
On
29 November 2006, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan criticised the Human Rights Council for "disproportionate focus on violations by Israel" while neglecting other parts of the world such as
Darfur, which had what he termed "graver" crises.
[15][16] Annan reiterated this position in his formal address on
8 December 2006 (
International Human Rights Day), noting the Commission's "disproportionate focus on violations by Israel. Not that Israel should be given a free pass. Absolutely not. But the Council should give the same attention to grave violations committed by other states as well."
[17]
On
20 June 2007, Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon joined Western nations in criticising the world body's own Human Rights Council for picking on Israel as part of an agreement on its working rules. The
European Union, Canada and the United States had already attacked the singling-out of Israel's role in the
Palestinian territories for continued special investigation, under the deal reached in Geneva two days earlier. A UN statement said, "The Secretary-General is disappointed at the council's decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world."
The Geneva meeting aroused further controversy after Cuba and Belarus, both accused of abuses, were removed from a list of nine special mandates, which included North Korea, Cambodia and Sudan, carried forward from the defunct Commission.
The council's charter preserves the watchdog's right to appoint special investigators for countries whose human rights records are of particular concern, something many developing states have long opposed. Commenting on Cuba and Belarus, the UN statement said Ban noted "that not having a Special Rapporteur assigned to a particular country does not absolve that country from its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." The United States said a day before the UN statement that the council deal raised serious questions about whether the new body could be unbiased.
Alejandro Wolff, deputy US permanent representative at the United Nations, accused the council of "a pathological obsession with Israel" and also denounced its action on Cuba and Belarus. "I think the record is starting to speak for itself," he told journalists.
[5][6]
Resolution concerning religion
The Council has sparked concern from
free speech and human rights groups over a proposed resolution, introduced by Pakistan, that would prevent "defamation of religions."
noted that passing a resolution concerned with religion, rather than individual freedoms, could result in a mandate to stifle freedom of expression and thought in countries around the world.
Freedom House said that the resolution went against what the Human Rights Council should stand for, protecting human rights and freedom of speech, calling it “a perversion of the language and institutions hitherto used to protect human rights”. The resolution itself at first calls for freedom of religion, but then goes on to say that people must speak “with responsibility”, and freedoms of speech may be limited in areas regarding “public health and morals” or “respect for religions and beliefs”.
Of the Council's members from the
Organization of the Islamic Conference, 16 of 17 voted for the resolution, along with China,
Russia, and
South Africa. The 14 members that voted against included all of the European Union,
Japan,
Ukraine and
South Korea. Nine developing countries abstained from the vote.
Periodic reviews of member states
A key component of the Council was intended to be a periodic review of all 192 UN member states, but in the Council's first nine months, it did not begin this or formulate how it would. It set a deadline of a year for it to get the program started.
References
1. The Shame of the United Nations
2. http://www.un.org/ga/60/elect/hrc/
3. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/year.htm
4. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/year.htm
5. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/year.htm
6. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/year.htm
7. http://www.un.org/ga/61/elect/hrc/
8. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/docs/13threport.AEV.pdf
9. [1]
10. US slams UNHRC's singling out of Israel
11. Bad counsel
12. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/30/global13685.htm
13. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/2/index.htm
14. Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Lebanon pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution S-2/1
★
15. [2]
16. [3]
17. [4]
External links
★
UN Human Rights Council - official website
★
UN Watch A NGO based in Geneva monitoring the work of the Human Rights Council
★
UN Resolution 60/251 establishing the Human Rights council
★
Human Rights Council Orientation Page - links to all the top documents, both official and NGO
★
Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council
★
★
UN Human Rights Council legal news and resources
★
Report on election of Human Rights Council members from
InnerCityPress.com accredited media at UN
★ Includes voting results
★
UN: Rights Council Disappoints Again,
Human Rights Watch,
6 October 2006
★
UN is human rights nightmare,
★
The must-see speech at the Human Rights Council,
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