"To Preserve and Build on its Achievements and to Redress its Shortcomings": The Journey from the Commission on Human Rights to the Human Rights Council

Abstract

In recent years the UN Commission on Human Rights has been widely and severely castigated for its failures to live up to the vision of being a genuine protector of victims of human rights abuses and instead becoming a shield for the violators. This article provides an assessment of these criticisms of the Commission by exploring its historical beginnings, its notable achievements, and its manifest shortcomings, and then analyzes how these and other factors came into play when the membership of the United Nations decided to replace the Commission with the new Human Rights Council.

Moral and human rights education: the contribution of the United Nations

“…Part of the overall problem with HRE must be attributed to the role played by the UNCHR, frequently described as 'dysfunctional', using double standards and 'completely broken' (Lauren, 2007). While these trenchant criticisms largely reflected the Commission's 'shielding' of human rights violators, they also characterised its inability to achieve its core business of human rights protection, including HRE.…”

A critical evaluation of the work of the UN Human Rights Council, or taking stock of fifteen years without illusions

“…13 However, the process leading to the replacement of the CHR by the HRC had begun a few years earlier. May 2001 marked an important milestone in this respect, as this was the occasion 4 Lauren (2007) 84. 5 Freedman (2013) 15.…”

A horizontal pathway to impact? An assessment of the Universal Periodic Review at 10

“…In light of the criticism directed at the former CHR (see e.g. Ghanea 2006;Lauren 2007;Boyle 2009), the resolution burdened the new organ with the expectations of "ensuring universality, objectivity and non-selectivity in the consideration of human rights issues, and the elimination of double standards and politicization". Acting in compliance with its mandate, the HRC promptly took care of its institution-building and adopted resolution 5/1.…”