THE STILL NEW UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

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THE STILL NEW UNITED NATIONSHUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
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THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

• Conceived in stupidity
• Born through malice
• Growing up with difficulty

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THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

• 1945 UN Charter mandates establishment of
  Commission
• 1946 Established by Economic and Social Council
  with states appointing renowned experts as their
  representatives
• 1948 Adoption of Universal Declaration of Human
  Rights
• 1949-1990 Divided by the Cold War
• 1966 Adoption of Covenants
• 1991-1995 Post Cold War euphoria
• Since 1995 reversion to divisive debate
• 2006 Commission replaced by Council

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CONCEIVED IN STUPIDITY

• 2001 USA not elected for first time
• 2003 Libya chairs the Commission
• December 2004 High Level Panel report recommends
  replacement
• March 2005 Secretary Generals report recommends
  replacement but on a different model
• September 2005 World Summit and Summit Outcome
  Document

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BORN WITH MALICE

• 15 March 2006 General Assembly passes resolution
  to replace Commission with Council
• General Assembly Resolution 60/251
• In favour 170 States
• Opposing Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United
  States of America
• Abstaining Belarus, Iran, Venezuela

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COMMISSION

• Broad mandate to discuss human rights issues,
  both thematic and country specific
• COUNCIL
• Broad mandate to discuss human rights issues
• Address situations of violations of human rights,
  including gross and systematic violations
• Universal periodic review of all States

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COMMISSION

• Functional commission of the Economic and Social
  Council
• COUNCIL
• Subsidiary organ of General Assembly
• Status to be reviewed within 5 years

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COMMISSION

• 53 member states elected by the Economic and
  Social Council for three year terms
• COUNCIL
• 47 member states elected by absolute majority of
  the General Assembly
• Individual secret ballots
• Eligible for two consecutive terms only
• Gross violators can be removed by two thirds
  majority vote of General Assembly

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COMMISSION

• No membership criteria
• COUNCIL
• Take account of contributions to human rights
• Voluntary pledges and commitments to be
  considered when standing for election
• But no disqualification criteria
• Members must uphold the highest standards in
  human rights and fully cooperate with the Council

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COMMISSION

• Annual 6 week session (March-April)
• Able to hold special sessions
• COUNCIL
• At least three meetings a year totalling at least
  10 weeks
• Able to hold special sessions on request of one
  third of members

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COMMISSION

• Mechanisms (Special Procedures) of rapporteurs,
  independent experts and working groups
• COUNCIL
• All mandates, mechanisms, functions and
  responsibilities of the Commission transferred
  to Council for review and rationalisation
  within one year
• A system of special procedures to be retained

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BORN THROUGH MALICE

• Commission Council
• Africa 15 13
• Asia 12 13
• Eastern Europe 5 6
• GRULAC 11 8
• WEOG 10 7
• Total 53 47

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GROWING WITH DIFFICULTY

• Institution Building (IB) Text Resolution 5/1
• Special Sessions
• special procedures system
• complaints system
• expert advice system
• Universal Periodic Review
• management and work

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SPECIAL SESSIONS

• Far easier to convene requisition of one third
  of Council member States
• Already had 6 Special Sessions
• Israel and the Occupied Territories (3 sessions)
• Israel and Lebanon
• Sudan and Darfur
• Myanmar
• Not restricted to country specific issues
• Argument that Special Sessions supercede country
  resolutions and country mandates
• New emphasis on follow up

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SPECIAL PROCEDURES

• Special Rapporteurs
• Independent experts
• Special Representatives
• Working Groups
• of states
• of independent experts
• Thematic mandates
• Country specific

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RESULTS TO DATE

• Thematic mandates
• all reviewed have been renewed
• one new mandate contemporary forms of slavery
• Country specific
• key issue consensual or imposed?
• three abolished Belarus, Cuba, DRC
• others retained DPRK, Myanmar, Sudan
• no new ones

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IMPORTANT CHANGES

• Code of Conduct
• Complaint procedure
• Appointment process
• eligibility list
• consultative group
• Presidential slate
• Council endorsement

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PROCESS FOR INDIVIDUAL COMMUNICATIONS

• Complaints (communications)
• Consistent pattern of reliably attested gross
  violations of human rights
• how to establish a consistent pattern individual
  handling or aggregation of complaints?
• reliably attested before or after referral to
  State?
• gross violations quantity or quality?
• prevention?

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THE MACHINERY FOR COMPLAINT HANDLING

• Working Group on Communications
• Working Group on Situations
• Report to the Council confidential consideration
• Confidential or public decision
• Public debate
• Appointment of special procedure with country
  specific mandate

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HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

• Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of
  Human Rights (formerly on discrimination)
• 18 independent experts elected by the Council for
  3 year terms (one third elected every year)
• Think tank for the Council (expertise, studies,
  research) but no right to initiate activities
• Meets up to twice annually in Geneva for up to
  two weeks in total

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GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

• Africa 5
• Asia 5
• Eastern Europe 2
• GRULAC 3
• WEOG 3

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UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW

• The biggest change from Commission to Council
• All states to be reviewed periodically, within
  first four years initially
• Council members to be reviewed during terms of
  office
• Not peer review but to be undertaken by Council
  without expert participation

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ISSUES

• Relationship with treaty body processes
• Role of experts
• Role of NGOs (whether or not accredited) and
  other relevant stakeholders
• Technical cooperation and assistance
• Nature of the recommendations consensual or
  imposed?

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THE BASIS

• The UN Charter
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Ratified human rights treaties
• Voluntary pledges and commitments

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THE PROCESS

• Collection of information
• State reports limited to 20 pages
• Additional information from UN sources (OHCHR
  compilation up to 10 pages)
• Additional, credible and reliable information
  from relevant stakeholders (OHCHR compilation up
  to 10 pages)
• Troika of 3 rapporteurs, chosen by lot from
  member States
• Interactive dialogue, with member and observer
  States up to 3 hours
• Report to the Council up to half hour
• Report adopted by the Council up to one hour

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THE RESULT

• Discussion in plenary, with all relevant
  stakeholders
• Summary of proceedings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations agreed by the State and not
  agreed
• Voluntary commitments made by the State
• Follow up

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THE EXPERIENCE

• First round conducted over last two weeks and 16
  States examined
• Interactive dialogue quite restrained but key
  issues were raised
• Reasonable cooperation of States under review
• Some good recommendations but tendency to go
  slow and go soft for the first round
• Second round next month, another 16 States

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MANAGEMENT

• Bureau, elected annually, consisting of
• President and four Vice Presidents, one of whom
  is rapporteur, one from each geographical group
  on a rotational basis
• First President Amb Luis de Alba of Mexico
• Second President Amb Doru Costea of Romania
• Third President from African Group Egypt?
• Secretariat provided by the Office of the High
  Commissioner for Human Rights

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ORDINARY SESSION AGENDA

• 1. Organisational and procedural matters
• 2. Annual report of the United Nations HCHR,
  OHCHR and SG
• 3. Promotion and protection of all human rights,
  civil, political, economic, social and cultural
  rights, including the right to development
• 4. Human rights situations that require the
  Councils attention
• 5. Human rights bodies and mechanisms
• 6. Universal Periodic Review
• 7. Human rights situation in Palestine and other
  occupied Arab territories
• 8. Follow-up and implementation of the VDPA
• 9. Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
  related forms of intolerance, follow-up and
  implementation of the DDPA
• 10. Technical assistance and capacity-building

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UN AND NGOs

• UN Charter Article 71
• Vienna Declaration and Program of Action
  paragraph 38
• Accreditation by the Economic and Social Council
• Role and functions within Human Rights Council
  General Assembly resolution OP 11.

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ROLE OF NGOs

• Direct access unparalleled in UN system
• Written submissions unlimited number
• Oral statements limited number but on all agenda
  items
• Participation in UPR
• Parallel events
• Lobbying and persuasion
• General
• Related to specific resolutions
• Related to specific delegations

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USEFUL WEBSITES

• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• www.ohchr.org
• Note also extranet page
• Login hrc extranet
• Password 1session
• International Service for Human Rights
• www.ishr.ch