The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission
within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was
replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a
subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, and was also assisted in
its work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights. It was the UN's principal mechanism and international forum
concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights.
On 15 March 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace
UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council. History
The UNCHR was established in 1946 by ECOSOC, and was one of the first two
"Functional Commissions" set up within the early UN structure. It was a body
created under the terms of the United Nations Charter to which all UN member
states are signatories. It met for the first time in January
1947 and established a drafting committee for the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.
The body went through two distinct phases. From 1947 to 1967, it followed
the policy of absenteeism, which meant that the Commission would concentrate on
promoting human rights and helping states elaborate treaties, but not on
investigating or condemning violators. It was a period of strict observance of
the sovereignty principle. In 1967, the Commission adopted
interventionism as its policy. The context of the decade was of
decolonization of Africa and Asia, and many countries of the continent pressed
for a more active UN policy on human rights issues, especially in light of
massive violations in apartheid South Africa. The new policy meant that the
Commission would also investigate and produce reports on violations.
To allow better fulfillment of this new policy, other changes took place. In the
1970s, the possibility of geographically-oriented workgroups was
created. These groups would specialize their activities on the investigation of
violations on a given region or even a single country, as was the case with
Chile. With the 1980s came the creation of theme-oriented workgroups, which
would specialize in specific types of abuses.
None of these measures, however, were able to make the Commission as effective
as desired, mainly because of the presence of human rights violators and
the politicization of the body. During the following years until its
extinction, the UNCHR became increasingly discredited among activists
and governments alike. The Commission held its final meeting in
Geneva on March 27, 2006 and was replaced by the United Nations Human
Rights Council in the same year. Mandate
The Commission on Human Rights was intended to examine, monitor and
publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or
territories as well as on major phenomena of human rights violations
worldwide. The Human Rights division of the U.N. is also expected to uphold and
protect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Structure At the time it was extinguished, the
Commission consisted of representatives drawn from 53 member states, elected by
the members of ECOSOC. There were no permanent members; each year
approximately a third of the seats of the Commission would come up for
election, and the representatives were appointed for a three-year term.
Seats on the Commission were apportioned by region, using the mechanism of the
United Nations Regional Groups. During its last year of service in 2005, the
representation by region was as follows: 15 from the African Group:
Burkina Faso, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea,
Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Zimbabwe
12 from the Asian Group: Bhutan, People's Republic of China,
India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar, Republic of
Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka 5 from the Eastern European Group:
Armenia, Hungary, Romania, Russian Federation, Ukraine
11 from the Latin American and Caribbean Group:
Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru 10 from the Western European and Others
Group: Australia, Canada, Finland, France,
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America
The Commission would meet each year in regular session for six weeks during
March and April in Geneva, Switzerland. In January 2004, Australia was elected
as chair of the 60th Session. In January 2005, Indonesia was elected chair of the
61st Session. Peru was elected chair of the 62nd Session in January 2006. The
Commission held its final meeting in Geneva on March 27, 2006.
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
In 1999 the Economic and Social Council changed its title from the
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities to the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights". The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights was the main subsidiary body of the Commission on
Human Rights. It was composed of twenty-six experts whose responsibility
was to undertake studies, particularly in light of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and make recommendations to the Commission concerning the
prevention of discrimination of any kind relating to human rights and fundamental
freedoms and the protection of racial, national, religious and linguistic
minorities. Membership was selected with regard to equitable geographical
distribution. The Sub-Commission established seven
Working Groups that investigate specific human rights concerns, including:
Minorities Transnational corporations
Administration of justice Anti-terrorism
Contemporary Forms of Slavery Indigenous Populations
Communication Social Forum
The United Nations Human Rights Council assumed responsibility for the
Sub-Commission when it replaced the Commission on Human Rights in 2006.
Special procedures The Commission on Human Rights
established 30 special procedures, or mechanisms, to address specific country
situations or thematic issues such as freedom of expression and opinion,
torture, the right to food, and the right to education.
Individuals with expertise in particular areas of human rights were appointed by
the chair of the Commission to serve as Special Rapporteurs for a maximum of six
years. They are unpaid, independent experts who receive personnel and
logistical support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
for their work. Their main activities are to examine, monitor, advise and
publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or
territories. They are able to write to governments about reported violations
and conduct fact-finding visits to countries that invite them.
The special mechanisms are categorised according to:
Thematic Mandates. Country Mandates.
Special procedures also include working groups made up of up to five experts who
monitor and investigate specific human rights concerns. Three groups were
established by the Commission: Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of
the right of peoples to self-determination
The special procedures are now under the direction of the United Nations Human
Rights Council. Criticism
One criticism was that the Commission did not engage in constructive
discussion of human rights issues, but was a forum for politically selective
finger-pointing and criticism. The desire of states with problematic human
rights records to be elected to the Commission was viewed largely as a way
to defend themselves from such attacks. On May 4, 2004, United States ambassador
Sichan Siv walked out of the Commission following the uncontested election of
Sudan to the commission, calling it an "absurdity" in light of Sudan's ethnic
cleansing in the Darfur region. One major consequence of the election of
Sudan to the Commission was the lack of willingness for some countries to work
through the commission. Indeed, on July 30, 2004, it was the United Nations
Security Council, not the Commission, that passed a resolution—by 13–0, with
China and Pakistan abstaining—threatening Sudan with
unspecified sanctions if the situation in the Darfur region did not improve
within the following 30 days. The reasons given for the action were the
attacks by the Janjaweed Arab militias of Sudan on the non-Arab African Muslim
population of Darfur, a region in western Sudan.
The commission had also come under repeated criticism from the United
States for its unwillingness to address real human rights concerns. In 2002, the
United States was kicked off the commission by the other member states,
many of whom have been criticized for their human rights violations, and in
2003 Syria put forward a proposal to discuss US war crimes in Iraq. But
journalist Anne Applebaum wrote, "the European Union and the United States
aren't exempt from blame, either", citing their hesitance in voting to
criticize Russia's actions in Chechnya. = Israel=
The Commission was also criticized for bias against Israel. In 2002 Anne
Bayefsky, a professor of international law at York University in Toronto, wrote
that "commission members seek to avoid directly criticizing states with human
rights problems, frequently by focusing on Israel, a state that, according to
analysis of summary records, has for over 30 years occupied 15 percent of
commission time and has been the subject of a third of country-specific
resolutions". On April 15, 2002, the Commission approved a resolution
affirming the "legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli
occupation in order to free its land and be able to exercise its right of
self-determination". In so doing, the Palestinian people was declared
"fulfilling its mission, one of the goals and purposes of the United
Nations". Of the 53-member commission, 40 countries voted yes, five voted no,
and seven abstained. Although widely reported that the resolution condoned
resistance to Israel by "all available means, including armed struggle", the
resolution itself does not contain those words. Alfred Moses, a former United
States ambassador to the commission and now chairman of the monitoring group UN
Watch, said that "A vote in favour of this resolution is a vote for
Palestinian terrorism." In a letter to the UNHRC on November 15, 2002,
following an attack by Palestinians on Israelis in the town of Hebron, Nabil
Ramlawi, the permanent observer for Palestine at the U.N., appealed to the
resolution as justification for the attack.
Human rights and mental health In 1977, the commission formed a
"Sub-Commission to study, with a view to formulating guidelines, if possible, the
question of the protection of those detained on the grounds of mental
ill-health against treatment that might adversely affect the human personality
and its physical and intellectual integrity". The sub-commission was
charged with "determin[ing] whether adequate grounds existed for detaining
persons on the grounds of mental ill-health".
The guidelines that resulted have been criticized for failing to protect the
rights of involuntary patients. Genocide
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a number of resolutions
concerning genocide, these were: UNCHR Decision 9.
1986/18; 1987/25; 1988/28; 1989/16; 1990/19; "Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide",
1998/10; and "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide", 1999/67. Also:
1978 the UNCHR endorsed the recommendation of the Sub-Commission on
Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to distribute
widely the Ruhashyankiko Report. August 1992, the UNCHR "Condemn[ed]
absolutely the concept and practice of 'ethnic cleansing [in the former
Yugoslavia]' but did not describe it as genocide. The commissions resolution was
endorsed the UNCHR parent body the United Nations Economic and Social
Council. November 1992, the UNCHR "Call[ed] upon
all Sates to consider the extent to which the acts committed in Bosnia ...
and in Croatia constitute genocide in accordance with [the Genocide
Convention]". 1994, at the request of Canada an
emergency meeting was convened to deal with the ongoing genocide in Rwanda.
René Degni-Sgui was appointed as a Special Rapporteur, and he immediately
visited Rwanda where he promptly issued a report on the scope of the genocide.
See also United Nations Human Rights Committee
References