United Nations Human Rights Council

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 15th of March 2006, the United Nations General Assembly voted to create the United Nations Human Rights Council. The new body replaced the Commission on Human Rights, which had served as the UN's main mechanism for scrutinizing government conduct on rights issues. The Council received authority to examine human rights allegations against any UN member state. Its mandate also covered thematic concerns: freedom of expression, freedom of religion, women's rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities. Forty-seven governments hold seats at any one time, elected by the full General Assembly in staggered three-year terms. Their work takes place at the Council's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The founding resolution declared that members elected to the Council "shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights." Whether governments that fall short of that standard can still shape which crises receive scrutiny is a question the Council cannot escape.

• 2. Seats and Regions

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  Thirteen of the Council's seats belong to the African Group, and another thirteen to the Asia-Pacific Group. Eight go to Latin American and Caribbean states, seven to the Western European and Others Group, and six to Eastern European states. This distribution means that African and Asian governments together hold a voting majority on the Council, shaping which resolutions pass and which do not. No member may serve more than two consecutive three-year terms; after that a country must step aside before standing again. Observer states, meaning UN member countries without a seat, may attend proceedings but cannot vote or table motions.

  The old Commission on Human Rights operated on a different model. It had 53 members, chosen not by the full General Assembly but by the Economic and Social Council. The General Assembly retains one sweeping authority over Council membership: it can suspend any member found to have committed gross and systematic human rights violations during its term. Suspension requires a two-thirds majority vote. Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico held the Council's first presidency, serving from the 19th of June 2006 to the 18th of June 2007. The presidency has since rotated through delegates drawn from all five regional groups, with each president serving a single calendar year.

• 3. Tools for Accountability

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  The Council holds regular sessions three times a year, convening in March, June, and September. When a crisis demands faster action, one-third of its members can call a special session; 36 such sessions have been convened. One of the most expansive mechanisms the Council operates is the Universal Periodic Review, which examines the human rights record of every UN member state. The first review cycle ran from 2008 to 2011, and the second from 2012 to 2016. Under the rules revised for the second cycle, each country's review focused specifically on whether governments had followed through on recommendations from the previous round. Each country's situation is debated for three and a half hours.

  A separate complaints system took shape on the 18th of June 2007, established by Council Resolution 5/1. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights receives between 11,000 and 15,000 communications every year. A Working Group on Communications screens each complaint for admissibility. Complaints that advance go to a Working Group on Situations, which meets twice a year for five working days to assess patterns of violations. During 2010-11, 1,451 of 18,000 complaints were passed forward for further action. Ninety-four percent of states respond when a complaint is raised with them. Complaints remain confidential throughout, and the Council communicates only with the complainant unless it decides to address a situation publicly. That confidentiality makes it nearly impossible for outside observers to assess how effective the procedure actually is.

  Special procedures form a third pillar of the Council's accountability work. These are named experts or working groups tasked with examining specific human rights concerns. As of August 2017, they numbered 44 thematic mandates and 12 country mandates. Thematic mandates must be renewed every three years; country mandates must be renewed yearly. Mandate-holders serve in a personal capacity, receive no pay for their work, and are generally limited to six years of service.

• 4. A Permanent Agenda Item

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  By 2018, Israel had been condemned in 78 resolutions by the Council, more than the total directed at every other country in the world combined. Part of that concentration flows from a structural decision made early in the Council's history. On the 30th of June 2006, the Council voted to make review of the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories" a standing feature of every session. That item, designated Agenda Item 7, passed by 29 votes to 12, with five abstentions, on a resolution sponsored by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. The special rapporteur appointed to investigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict carries the only expert mandate with no expiry date, on the grounds that the occupation the mandate scrutinizes remains ongoing.

  On the 3rd of April 2009, South African Judge Richard Goldstone was named head of a UN fact-finding mission tasked with investigating violations related to the Gaza War. The mission's report was released on the 15th of September 2009. It found evidence that Israel had committed actions amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. The same report concluded that Palestinian armed groups had committed war crimes through repeated rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel. Goldstone later partially retracted the war-crimes findings against Israel. He said new evidence about commanders' decision-making would probably have changed the mission's conclusions on the question of intent.

  Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued in 2006 that the Council should not have a "disproportionate focus on violations by Israel," while making clear that Israel should not receive what he called a "free pass." In July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling declaring that Israel should dismantle settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The court also called for an end to what it described as Israel's illegal occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his disappointment on the 20th of June 2007, saying the Council had singled out only one regional situation given the breadth of human rights violations across the world.

• 5. America In and Out

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  George W. Bush was the first U.S. president to confront the Council membership question directly, and he chose to stay out. His administration pledged financial support from outside the body while maintaining that the United States would be more effective without a seat. In March 2007, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack announced for the second year running that the United States would not seek election. He cited the Council's singular focus on Israel while countries including Cuba, Myanmar, and North Korea faced little scrutiny. The U.S. Senate voted in September 2007 to cut off funding to the Council.

  Barack Obama reversed course on the 31st of March 2009, announcing that the United States would join and play a leading role. New Zealand agreed not to seek election that year to make room for the United States to run unopposed. Belgium and Norway stood alongside the United States for seats in the Western European and Others Group. With U.S. engagement active, American commentators began arguing that the Council was becoming more relevant.

  That engagement ended on the 19th of June 2018, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that the Trump administration was withdrawing. Haley called the Council a "cesspool of political bias." She also said that treating Israel worse than North Korea, Iran, and Syria made the body "unworthy of its name." In December 2020, then-U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft called the Council "a haven for despots and dictators, hostile to Israel, and ineffectual on true human rights crises."

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on the 8th of February 2021 that the Biden administration would reengage with the Council. On the 4th of February 2025, President Trump withdrew again. A White House fact sheet cited the Council's "consistent bias against Israel" and called it "a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations." A Council spokesperson noted some confusion in that announcement. The United States' most recent membership term had already ended on the 1st of January 2025. The country had automatically become an observer by that point, meaning there was no formal membership to withdraw from.

• 6. Who Earns a Seat

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  In September 2015, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, was elected to chair the Advisory Committee, the panel that appoints independent human rights experts. UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer called it "scandalous that the UN chose a country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key human rights panel." In January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr, who had called for free elections. By October 2020, Saudi Arabia had lost a bid for a Council seat, receiving 90 votes, fewer than Nepal's 150 and Pakistan's 169.

  In July 2012, Syria announced it would seek election while human rights organizations estimated that 14,000 civilians had already died in the ongoing civil war. The United States and European Union drafted a resolution opposing the candidacy. Syria did not appear on the ballot for the election of the 12th of November 2012. Sudan was also put forward that year, despite the International Criminal Court's indictment of its president, Omar Al-Bashir, for genocide. Sudan did not make the final ballot either, though Ethiopia was elected. When the UN General Assembly added Venezuela to the Council in October 2019, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft wrote that 105 countries voting in favor was "ironclad proof that the Human Rights Council is broken."

  Russia's removal came most dramatically. On the 7th of April 2022, just days after evidence of the Bucha massacre in Ukraine had emerged, the General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the Council. The measure passed with 93 votes in favor, 24 against, and 58 abstentions. Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative Gennady Kuzmin announced that Russia had already decided to withdraw before the vote, in anticipation of the outcome. Libya had been the first Council member ever suspended, removed on the 1st of March 2011 following what the General Assembly resolution described as Muammar Gaddafi's "violent crackdown on anti-government protestors," and reinstated on the 18th of November 2011. Russia became only the second member suspended. It was also the first permanent member of the UN Security Council ever to be suspended from any United Nations body. After the suspension, Russia withdrew its membership entirely, retaining observer status but losing the right to vote, table motions, or seek reinstatement.