United Nations Human Rights Council - Definition and Facts

Definition

The Human Rights Council is the main intergovernmental body within the United Nations responsible for human rights. Established in 2006 by the General Assembly, it is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.

The Council, composed of 47 Member States, provides a multilateral forum to address human rights violations and country situations. It responds to human rights emergencies and makes recommendations on how to better implement human rights on the ground.

The Council benefits from substantive, technical, and secretariat support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Human Rights Council replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Mandate and Functions

• Serves as an international forum for dialogue on human rights issues with UN officials and mandated experts, states, civil society, and other participants;
• Adopts resolutions or decisions during regular sessions that express the will of the international community on given human rights issues or situations. Adopting a resolution sends a strong political signal which can prompt governments to take action to remedy those situations;
• Holds crisis meetings known as special sessions to respond to urgent human rights situations, 36 of which have been held to date;
• Reviews the human rights records of all United Nations Member States via the Universal Periodic Review;
• Appoints the Special Procedures, independent human rights experts who serve as the eyes and ears of the Council by monitoring situations in specific countries or by looking at specific themes; and
• Authorizes commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions, which produce hard-hitting evidence on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This part of the article was originally published by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which can be accessed through this link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/about-council

------------------------------

Membership

The Council is made of 47 Member States, which are elected by the majority of members of the General Assembly of the United Nations through direct and secret ballot. The General Assembly takes into account the candidate States' contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.

The Council's Membership is based on equitable geographical distribution. Seats are distributed as follows:

1. African States: 13 seats
2. Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
3. Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats
4. Western European and other States: 7 seats
5. Eastern European States: 6 seats

Members of the Council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms. With membership on the Council comes a responsibility to uphold high human rights standards. This is a criteria insisted on by States themselves when they adopted resolution 60/251 in March 2006 to create the Human Rights Council.

This part of the article was originally published by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which can be accessed through this link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/membership 

--------------------------------

Duties and Mandate of the President

Members of the Human Rights Council elect a representative among themselves to preside over their sessions. The President of the Council serves for one year and carries out the following duties:

• Chairs meetings of the Council;
• Proposes candidates for Special Procedures mandates and expert mechanisms, to be appointed by the Council;
• Appoints experts to serve on investigative bodies; this is done through ad hoc consultations and outreach to different stakeholders to seek highly qualified and impartial candidates;
• Receives and responds to correspondence from Permanent Missions and other actors;
• Builds awareness and trust in the Human Rights Council through outreach and diplomacy; and
• Responsible for ensuring that the Council activities are led in a respectful and constructive manner, which requires neutrality.

This part of the article was originally published by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which can be accessed through this link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/presidency 

—--------------------------

Council Mechanisms and Entities

The role, principles, objectives, and methods of the Council’s main subsidiary bodies are outlined in its “Institution-building package” (resolution 5/1), which it adopted in June 2007, one year after its first meeting. The main subsidiary bodies of the Council are:

• Universal Periodic Review: The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years. Since its first cycle in 2008, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed three times. The fourth cycle of the review began in November 2022, at the 41st session of the UPR Working Group.
• Special Procedures: The Council also establishes independent experts known as Special Procedures. The Council mandates, nominates, selects, and appoints the respective mandate holders – be they individuals or groups of individuals. These independent experts report annually to the Council from both thematic and country-specific perspectives.
• Advisory Committee: Composed of 18 independent experts, the Committee functions as the Council’s think tank and helps set its directions on thematic issues.
• Complaint Procedure: The complaint procedure of the Human Rights Council addresses consistent patterns of gross and reliably-attested violations of all human rights and fundamental freedoms occurring in any part of the world and under any circumstances. Complaints may be submitted by individuals, groups, or non-governmental organizations that claim to be victims of such violations, or who have direct, reliable knowledge of them.

This part of the article was originally published by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which can be accessed through this link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/other-sub-bodies