United Nations Forms New Council
By Joshua Harford, 09.29.05
The United Nations General Assembly will be responsible for organizing the new Human Rights Council. This is after world leaders could not agree on specific council guidelines during the UN Summit Sept. 14-16. Proponents hope the new council will help stop human rights abuses that are currently ignored.
The need for reform became an issue when UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan highlighted the commission in April: “We have reached a point at which the commission’s declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system,” he said.
The lack of specific guidelines is creating questions about how effectiveness of the new council. The council is designed to replace the discredited UN Commission on Human Rights. According to, Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy group, said the new council should not be seen as an improvement until its composition is known.
The membership of the current commission is based upon geographic diversity, allowing nations cited for human rights violations to serve on the commission. As a result, abusing nations that vote collectively are able to block complaints from going before the commission. This effectively gives suspected international criminals the ability to act as judges in their own trial.
Even when the commission does scrutinize human rights abusers, it is generally short-lived. The current commission is in session for only six weeks out of the year, allowing nations that violate human rights to escape inspection the rest of the year.
According to Human Rights Watch, states make superficial gestures; like the release of a political prisoner at the beginning of the Commission’s session. They also make broad commitments, but are able to avoid any real scrutiny of their human rights records. Yet the watch group adds that there is no ability to hold states to their promises until the following year. This is shown when a prisoner can be re-arrested at the close of the session.
Critics were disappointed that clear reforms were not established during the UN Summit. However, the international community is discussing a number of proposals to ensure the new Human Rights Council is an improvement over the old Human Rights Commission.
One guideline the General Assembly will debate is if the council should be a standing body for the entire year. This will enable the council to disperse funds as necessary when abuses arise, instead of just during the six week window. Additionally, proponents hope it will eliminate the 48-week recess that abusing nations currently enjoy from scrutiny.
Reformers also want to make each nation’s human rights record part of the selection criteria to serve on the council. Although the standards have not been decided, it would most likely involve a form of peer review.
Some nations want to require a two-thirds majority for election to the new council. According to Human Rights Watch this will make it harder for states with dismal human rights records to be included on the council.
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