Human Rights Council
| مجلس حقوق الإنسان التابع للأمم المتحدة (Arabic) 联合国人权理事会 (Chinese) Conseil des droits de l'homme des Nations unies (French) Совет по правам человека ООН (Russian) Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas (Spanish) |
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Logo of the United Nations Human Rights Council
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| Abbreviation | UNHRC |
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| Formation | 2006 |
| Type | United Nations System inter-governmental body |
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Parent organization
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United Nations General Assembly |
| Website | www.ohchr.org |
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations System inter-governmental body responsible for promoting and protecting human rights around the world. Its 47 seats are filled by member states elected for three-year terms.
The UNHRC is the successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR, herein CHR), and is a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly. The council works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and engages the United Nations' special procedures.
The General Assembly established the UNHRC by adopting a resolution (A/RES/60/251) on 15 March 2006, in order to replace the previous CHR, which had been heavily criticised for allowing countries with poor human rights records to be members.
The UNHRC addresses mostly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and occasionally addresses rights-related situations in countries such as in Myanmar, Guinea, North Korea, Côte d'Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Libya, Iran, and Sri Lanka, though with much lesser frequency. The UNHRC also addresses important thematic human rights issues such as freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, women's rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.
Secretaries General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, former president of the council Doru Costea, the European Union, Canada, and the United States have accused the council of focusing disproportionately on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The United States boycotted the Council during the George W. Bush administration, but reversed its position on it during the Obama administration. Beginning in 2009 however, with the United States taking a leading role in the organization, American commentators began to argue that the UNHRC was becoming increasingly relevant.
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