Ten years after its founding
Human Rights Council
A mechanism without teeth .. and governed by political and diplomatic relations
A position paper issued by the Policy Analysis Unit of the Maat Foundation
On March 15, 2006, that is, ten years ago, the United Nations General Assembly decided by a majority of 170 of its members that the global human rights protection system needs a new mechanism that avoids the flaws and shortcomings of the existing mechanisms at the time, led by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Committee emanating from the Council economic and social, and therefore the Assembly decided to adopt Resolution No. A/RES/60/251). ), to establish the Human Rights Council.
According to its founding resolution, the Council consists of 47 members elected by the General Assembly of the United Nations by a majority by secret ballot to represent the regional distribution of the different regions of the world, where the African Group, the Asian Group with 13 members each, the Eastern European Group with six seats, and the Latin American Group With five seats, three for the Caribbean, and seven for Western European and other countries.
Now, after a full decade has passed since the establishment of the Council, the United Nations system and human rights defenders in the world must pause for a moment to evaluate the harvest of those ten years, and consider with an impartial and careful eye whether the Council represented a real addition to the mechanisms of human rights protection, and was able to fulfill justifications Its establishment included in the decision to establish it, or did the Council reproduce the shortcomings that weakened its previous mechanisms, and undermined the hopes placed on it to make the world more respectful of human rights.
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