THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

“The peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women.”
                                ~ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

Overview

On March 15, 2006 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to create a new Human Rights Council to replace the Commission on Human Rights. Unlike its predecessor, in which members were elected by regional groups with the support of 28 or fewer countries, the new Council requires the agreement of 96 nations in a secret ballot. For the first time each member's human rights record will be scrutinized before and after elections. The Council will meet throughout the year, not just once a year, making it more responsive to real-time human rights emergencies.

U.S. Position

The United States was one of four nations to vote against the resolution, believing that it did not have a strong enough mechanism to maintain a “credible membership.” However the U.S. did pledge to “work cooperatively with other member states to make the Council as strong and effective as it can be.”

Following the recommendations of Ambassador Bolton, Vice President Cheney, and National Security Advisor Hadley, the U.S. decided against running for a seat on the Council.

Citizens for Global Solutions Position

Citizens for Global Solutions believes that the creation of a new United Nations Human Rights Council is a positive step forward for the global community and U.S. foreign policy. While Citizens for Global Solutions shares the Bush administration’s view that the Council should have more closely reflected Secretary General Annan’s vision, key components such as specific criteria for membership, peer review and year-round meetings to ensure rapid response to violations will make the Council a vast improvement over its predecessor. Citizens for Global Solutions regrets that the U.S. did not decide to run for membership on the Council, and we believe that U.S. support and participation will improve the Council’s stature and effectiveness.

The United States should:

1. Urge that the Peer Review System is implemented in a timely, transparent and robust fashion. Key components include determining when countries will be reviewed and how they can be reviewed in a way that allows all peers and civil society to have a voice.

2. Stop supporting the candidacy of human rights violators who wish to get onto or remain on the HRC. Russia and China were supported by Ambassador Bolton for inclusion in the Council because of their permanent status on the Security Council. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are two dictatorial rights-abusing regimes that are treated as close allies of the U.S. – a fact that may have assisted their election efforts.

3. Work with allies who are on the HRC to ensure that it focuses on human rights violators both on and off the Council, including Cuba, Zimbabwe, Russia, and Pakistan.

Current Status

On May 9 2006, elections were held. It is important to note that the worst human rights abusers were too fearful to run. Since Council membership is difficult to obtain and necessarily entails close scrutiny, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Vietnam decided against even running for seats.

The elections worked and violators, including Iran and Venezuela, were emphatically denied seats on the Council. While regional and international politics played a role in the voting, countries with poor records on human rights found themselves fighting an uphill battle. In fact, the number of countries deemed to be "not free" by Freedom House winning seats on the Council was more than halved.

While this was a positive step forward both reflection and hard work is needed. The elections would have yielded an even better result if the U.S. were engaged in the process. Now that the Council's membership is set, the U.S. should work with the Council to protect human rights around the world.

About Citizens for Global Solutions

Citizens for Global Solutions envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone. This vision requires effective democratic global institutions that will apply the rule of law while respecting the diversity and autonomy of national and local communities. We work to build political will for our vision in the United States by educating Americans about our global interdependence, communicating global concerns to public officials, and developing proposals to create, reform, and strengthen international institutions such as the United Nations.
 

Updated May 10, 2006