Committee: United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

English version of a poster depicting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A III of 10 December 1948. [November 1949]  01 November 1949  United Nations, New York

The Human Rights Council was established on 15 March, 2006. It replaced the 60 year old UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Human Rights Council was created by the General Assembly, and it reports directly to the Assembly. The Human Rights Council “is a primarily political body with a comprehensive human rights mandate and a forum empowered to prevent abuse, inequity and discrimination, protect the most vulnerable and expose perpetrators.” (UN News Centre) The United Nations Human Rights Council’s main focus is to protect those who are not able to defend themselves from other countries, their own, or nongovernmental organizations. Its purpose is to address situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them. This council meets to decide what is to be done about atrocities around the world such as genocide, torture and discrimination. The Human Rights Council is represented by 47 states. These states are elected by the 192 members of the General Assembly. The General Assembly wants the council to be fairly representative of the world so the Council allotted spots to each region. Africa has 13 positions, Asia 13, Eastern Europe 6, Latin America and The Caribbean have 8, and Western Europe and other states are provided 7 representatives. Each term is three years long; the first election was on May 9, 2006. The next election will be in 2012. If a country has served two consecutive terms then they can’t run for immediate re-election. 

However, there is a substantial amount of controversy surrounding the Council, as it is accused of having a strong anti-Israel bias. The Council replaces the now defunct Commission on Human Rights, which was dissolved due to inefficiency and hypocrisy by member states. The Human Rights Commission spent 40 years adopting country-specific criticisms, a third of which condemned Israel. The new Human Rights Council was created to reform these issues, recognizing “the importance of ensuring universality, objectivity and non-selectivity in the consideration of human rights issues, and the elimination of double standards and politicization.” (Res 60/251) However, many question the effectiveness of reforms, as there is still a perceived anti-Israeli bias from the body. Past American administrations have openly criticized the Human Rights Commission and UNHCR, most recently by George W Bush’s refusal to join because of their anti-Israeli stance. However, under the leadership of President Barak Obama, the United States has since joined UNHCR in an attempt to reform the Council. The belief is that by joining UNHCR, the United States will be able to positively influence its objectivity and direction. After the “Five Year Review” of the Council, the results were still contested and highly controversial.

Despite this controversy, many conventions and convents have been implemented by the Council and its predecessor to stop the abuse of human rights such as; The Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), International Convention of the Elimination of All of Racial Discrimination (1966), International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights (1966), The Convent on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and many more. The Human Rights Council also protects the rights of children, preventing them from becoming child soldiers or prostitutes and making the sale of child pornography illegal. The rights of migrant workers, women, the indigenous and people with disabilities have all been protected by the United Nations. Abuses prompt the United Nations to develop more conventions to protect individuals; examples include apartheid, genocide, and torture. The Council issued the International Convention on Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid in 1973 and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman, Degrading treatment or Punishment in 1984.

                                                                     Works Cited

Sela Hadar,“UNHRC Used By Dictators To Undermine Human Rights.” The Propagandist. http://propagandistmag.com/2011/02/21/unhrc-used-dictators-undermine-human-rights

“UN News Centre”. United Nations. 24 May 2011 http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/hr_council/hr_q_and_a.htm 

“Who we are”. United Nations Human Rights Council. 24 May 2011 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/WhoWeAre.aspx 

“What we do”. United Nations Human Rights Council. 24 May 2011      http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/WhatWeDo.aspx