The Eleventh Session of the Human Rights Council is to take place in Geneva from 2 to 18 June 2009. One key question to be addressed is the renewed extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan. Interactive dialogue with other Special Rapporteurs and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, will also play a central role.
Furthermore, the Council will conduct its annual general debate on women’s rights during this session. There will also be a panel discussion on human rights and climate change initiated jointly by Germany and the Maldives.
During the session, Germany will sponsor a resolution on human trafficking in collaboration with the Philippines. Also, together with Chile and amnesty international, Germany will organize an event on the situation of prisoners of conscience.
The German delegation will be headed by Günter Nooke, Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office.
Election of the new United Nations Human Rights Council (UN News Centre)
From the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to the Human Rights Council (HRC)
On 15 March 2006 the United Nations General Assembly voted by a large majority to replace the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) with a new Human Rights Council (Resolution 60/251). This was one of the key proposals for reform made in March 2005 by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan towards strengthening United Nations human rights protection (“In Larger Freedom”).
The establishment of the Human Rights Council was subsequently approved in principle by Heads of State and Government at the Millennium Summit in September 2005. The CHR’s final (62nd) session was held on 27 March merely as a matter of procedure, and the new Human Rights Council convened for the first time from 19 to 30 June 2006. The Human Rights Council, which comprises 47 elected member states (the CHR had 56 member states) has the same status as the UN General Assembly committees and reports directly to the General Assembly.
With the adoption of Resolution 5/1 on 19 June 2007, the Human Rights Council largely completed its organizational development.
Major differences between the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council:
- The new regional structure within the Human Rights Council substantially reduces the influence of the Western and Latin American regional groups.
- The Council meets for no less than ten weeks per year, spread over no less than three sessions. The CHR met for just six weeks. So in future there will be considerably more time to deal with human rights issues in the UN. It is also important that the UN will in future be able to respond much more quickly to severe human rights violations. The HRC thus has the right to hold special sessions, which it has done four times since summer 2006 (on the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Sudan).
- The Human Rights Council has been given a comprehensive mandate to deal with human rights abuses in individual countries and to submit recommendations.
- The system of special rapporteurs which proved its worth in the Commission on Human Rights and the broad possibilities for participation by non-governmental organizations have been retained by the Human Rights Council for an initial one-year period. The same applies to the confidential complaints procedure of the Commission on Human Rights, the so-called 1503 procedure, and the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights chiefly as an advisory body. Within this period the efficiency and the networking of the above-mentioned mechanisms are to be improved in the context of a Review of Mandates (RoM).
- The hurdle for membership of the Human Rights Council has been raised for countries which violate human rights, as they have to demonstrate their activities and commitment in the field of human rights. There is in principle also the possibility for such states to be “un-elected”.
- The Human Rights Council has also been called upon to establish a procedure during its first year under which all UN member states will in future have to submit to a periodic review mechanism to ensure that they are meeting their human rights obligations (so-called Universal Periodic Review). Germany underwent this procedure for the first time in February 2009.
More information on the Universal periodic review:
Germany’s membership of the Human Rights Council is due to end on 18 June 2009
Germany was elected to the new United Nations Human Rights Council for a period of three years on 9 May 2006 in the first elections to this new body. In the Western regional group Germany obtained the best result (154 votes) of all the candidates. Germany’s membership of the Human Rights Council began on 19 June 2006, the date of the formal commencement of its work.
This gratifyingly clear result is both recognition of and a spur for German human rights policy. Germany has put forward its candidacy for renewed membership of the Human Rights Council for the period 2012-2015. Until then, Germany will take its observer status very seriously.
Members of the Human Rights Council and distribution of seats
Elections to the Human Rights Council take place every May, with one third of its members being elected for a three-year term. Following the last elections on 12 May 2009, the Council will be composed as follows from 19 June 2009 (including 8 EU member states):
- African Group – 13 seats:
Djibouti (-2012), Cameroon (-2012), Nigeria (-2012), Mauritius (-2012), Senegal (-2012), Burkina Faso (-2011), Gabon (-2011), Ghana (-2011), Zambia (-2011), South Africa (-2010), Egypt (-2010), Angola (-2010), Madagascar (-2010); - Asian Group – 13 seats:
Bangladesh (-2012), China (-2012), Jordan (-2012), Kyrgyzstan (-2012); Saudi Arabia (-2012), Bahrain (-2011), Japan (-2011), Republic of Korea (-2011), Pakistan (-2011), India (-2010), Indonesia (-2010), Qatar (-2010), the Philippines (-2010); - Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) – 8 seats:
Cuba (-2012), Mexico (-2012), Uruguay (-2012), Argentina (-2011), Brazil (-2011), Chile (-2011), Bolivia (-2010), Nicaragua (-2010); - Eastern European Group (EEG) – 6 seats:
Hungary (-2012), Russia (-2012), Ukraine (-2011), Slovakia (-2011), Bosnia and Herzegovina (-2010), Slovenia (-2010); - Western European and Other States Group (WEOG) – 7 seats:
Belgium (-2012), Norway (-2012), USA (-2012), France (-2011), United Kingdom (-2011), Netherlands (-2010), Italy (-2010)
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