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Summary: Below are some highlights from a meeting with the International Services for Human Rights in Geneva, who have been following the negotiations on a new Human Rights Council.
On Monday 28 October, the President of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson circulated the Compilation Text on the proposed new Human Rights Council. Negotiations began on 30 November and were initially expected to end on 16 December. The International Service for Human Rights have been following the negotiations closely and are posting weekly updates on their website at: www.ishr.ch More information is available at the following website: www.reformtheun.org See also Amnesty International’s pages on the UN reform. CRIN's news section on the UN Commission on Human Rights and its reform
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It is now looking unlikely that this deadline would be reached as no consensus has yet been reached and some countries want negotiations to be prolonged, possibly even with the setting up of a working group. NGOs would prefer negotiations to conclude as soon as possible, but only if the resolution adopted complies with the set of principles set out in previous NGO Communications to Mr Eliasson and negotiators.
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Governments have so far had the opportunity to comment on different aspects, such as the preamble to the text, operative sections on the status, mandate and functions, size, membership and composition, rules of procedures, methods of work and transitional arrangements.
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On the Preamble, it is more or less agreed that the new Human Rights Council will be a subsidiary body of the GA, not a principle organ, as it would otherwise require an amendment to the Charter. There is no clear agreement on the mandate, no agreement on periodic review, how the review would take place and whether there should be country mandates.
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No agreement either on the special procedures. The Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (1), which is a subsidiary body of the Commission will most likely be abolished, although it has only been indirectly part of the discussion. Some Western States and NGOs have little interest, while some want to retain the work of the SC as a body of independent experts.
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No agreement on size of the body, although it likely that membership will be somewhere between 42 and 45 members. There is no agreement yet on elections of members to the Council. The P5 (five permanent members of the Security Council: China, France, Russia, UK, US) consider themselves as entitled to permanent seats, as do some other states such as India, Pakistan, Brazil, etc.
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If, as it is predicted, no resolution is reached by the end of this year, States will have to start preparing for a session of the Commission in March, and therefore NGOs will have to start strategising in early January and push for a substantive agenda.
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Note 1: The Sub-Commission is the main subsidiary body of the Commission on Human Rights and is comprised of 26 independent experts in the field of human rights who are elected by the Commission, with due regard to equitable geographical distribution, and who act in their personal capacity.
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The central task entrusted to the Sub-Commission is to assist the Commission on Human Rights in its work. Its main functions are to undertake studies on human rights issues, to 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, and to carry out any other functions which may be entrusted to it by the Council or the Commission.