OTHER UN HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS

While the CHR is fundamentally a meeting of government officials lasting six weeks, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the permanent UN agency that breathes life into the decisions of the Commission. Established by General Assembly resolution 48/141, the High Commissioner for Human Rights is an individual appointed by the Secretary-General to serve as the keystone advocate of UN human rights activities. Human rights have been established within the UN system as a cross-cutting issue, an issue relevant to all the activities of the UN, and the High Commissioner determines how to ensure that human rights are adequately integrated into all of the UN's many functions.

The OHCHR provides both administrative and substantive service to the CHR. The OHCHR plans, prepares and services meetings of the Commission on Human Rights; this role is vital and includes such wide-ranging activities as scheduling the meeting times and places, making arrangements for the Special Procedures to give their reports, and facilitating the preparation and distribution of all relevant documentation. Substantively, the OHCHR produces reports to support the CHR-mandated Special Procedures, processes the 1503 complaints, and staffs human rights fact-finding and technical assistance missions. In some cases, CHR resolutions may specifically request the High Commissioner intervene in certain human rights situations. Though the OHCHR does have some leeway to take action outside of the activities specifically mandated by the CHR, this flexibility is kept in check by governmental oversight.

The human rights treaty monitoring bodies are another group related to the CHR. These treaty bodies include the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee against Torture, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Because these treaty bodies are set up by individual treaties and open only to that treaty's State Parties, the treaty monitoring bodies are not expressly UN agencies. However, their work may be considered and modified by decisions of the CHR. For example, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture was initiated by a Commission resolution.

Analysis

Since human rights are a cross-cutting issue within the UN system, the resolutions of the CHR are not limited to human rights standards in a vacuum. Commission resolutions often comment on the work of other UN agencies and step into issues that are normally the sole domain of other institutions within the UN. For example, the CHR biennially considers a resolution on health as a human right and there is even a Special Rapporteur on this subject. This necessitates discussing the relevance and the adequacy of the work of the World Health Organization (WHO). It would not be unusual to have the Director-General of the WHO address a meeting of the CHR. However, a discussion of this nature may threaten other UN agencies, particularly if the CHR criticizes them or seeks to apply human rights standards that may not be accepted in other fields. This cross-cutting approach to human rights can lead to very controversial CHR discussions. For example, currently a fierce debate is taking place regarding whether human rights issues relating to trade are better addressed within the CHR or within specific trade-interested bodies, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Recommendations

While many of the UN's specialized agencies, such as the WHO and the WTO, are located in Geneva, the political and budgeting bodies of the UN are located in New York. Meeting in Geneva isolates human rights from many of these important meetings. Much of the controversy felt by UN agencies could be alleviated if the CHR met with its parent bodies, the ECOSOC and the General Assembly. The CHR should schedule annual meetings in New York.

Click the links below for further information about the Commission on Human Rights.

The Commission on Human Rights

A Brief Overview of the CHR

History of the CHR

Membership in the CHR

Participation by Civil Society

Agenda and Resolutions

The Use of Special Procedures

Conclusion