last updated 20 August 2007 

On 15 March 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 60/251, which created the Human Rights Council (HR Council). The HR Council is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, thus making it accountable to all the members of the United Nations. One hundred seventy Member States voted in favor of the resolution. Four members, including the United States, Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau, voted against the resolution; Belarus, Iran and Venezuela abstained.

The HR Council replaces the UN Commission on Human Rights.  The Commission on Human Rights was created in 1946 as the United Nation’s primary body responsible for promoting and protecting human rights. The Commission on Human Rights had been criticized over the years for its politicization, inclusion of states with deplorable human rights conditions, and use of double standards. (see also David Weissbrodt, Fionnuala Ni Aoláin, Joan Fitzpatrick, and Frank Newman, Chapter 6, International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process (4th ed. 2006).

All responsibilities, functions and mandates of the Commission on Human Rights were assumed by the HR Council on 19 June 2006. The HR Council is to address human rights violations, including gross and systematic violations without distinction of any kind. Specifically, the HR Council promotes and protects civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as the right to development.[1]  Also, it will engage in efforts to promote and mainstream human rights issues into the work of the UN.    

Under General Assembly Resolution 60/251, the HR Council is to prevent, address and make recommendations regarding human rights violations. Some of the specific tasks assigned to the HR Council include promoting human rights education, providing a forum for the discussion of human rights issues, making recommendations, working with other organizations and governmental bodies, and submitting an annual report to the General Assembly.  Importantly, the HR Council must complete a “periodic review” of each Member State’s human rights conduct. The review is be cooperative and fully involve the Member State. After five years, the HR Council is required to review its operations and submit a report to the General Assembly.

The 47-member HR Council has eight fewer members than the Commission on Human Rights. The HR Council’s membership is constituted by direct individual election of Member States, by secret ballot and a majority vote of the General Assembly. In contrast, members for the Commission on Human Rights were elected by a majority vote of the fifty-four ECOSOC members. Also, the HR Council’s membership uses a quota system to ensure equitable geographical representation. Membership seats are distributed based on regional groups: thirteen from African states, thirteen from Asian states, six from Eastern European states, eight from Latin American and Caribbean states, and seven from Western European and other states. The term of each member is limited to three years.  There are limitations on re-election and members are barred from immediate re-election after two consecutive terms.  Resolution 60/251 also establishes the standards for maintaining membership on the HR Council.  If a Member State of the HR Council has committed “gross and systematic violations of human rights,” its membership can be terminated by a two-thirds majority vote of the General Assembly.

The members of the current Human Rights Council are: Angola, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Uruguay, Zambia.

The HR Council follows the rules of procedure created for the committees of the General Assembly.  The HR Council or the General Assembly is allowed to create rules specifically applicable to the HR Council at a later date.  Consultants and observers such as NGOs, human rights institutions, intergovernmental organizations and other non-Council General Assembly member states, can participate based on the procedures created by ECOSOC resolution 1996/3 and practices adhered to by the Commission on Human Rights.

The Human Rights Council assumed certain mandates and mechanisms from the Commission on Human Rights on 19 June 2006. These are the special procedures, working group mandates, mandates for the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and the complaints procedure.

At the conclusion of its fifth session in June 2007, the HR Council extended the special procedures’ mandates, with the exception of Belarus and Cuba, until they are considered by the Council and a review of all Special Procedures mandates is completed.  On 18 June 2007, the HR Council adopted resolution 5/1 entitled “Institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council.”  The resolution addresses the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, the review of all Special Procedures mandates, the 18-member Advisory, a complaint procedure to address “consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights and all fundamental freedoms occurring in any part of the world and under any circumstances” (para. 80), and the HR Council’s Methods of Work and Rules of Procedure.