Reconceiving the UN Human Rights Regime: Challenges Confronting the New UN Human Rights Council
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FEATURE
RECONCEIVING THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS REGIME:
CHALLENGES CONFRONTING THE NEW
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
PHILIP ALSTON*
[In 2006, the UN Commission on Human Rights, established 60 years earlier, was replaced by a
new Human Rights Council. This article examines the widely differing reasons given for the
Commission 's loss of credibility and seeks to draw lessons relevant to the new institutional
regime which the Council must build It argues that the preoccupation with the Council's
composition, and the exclusion of violators, fails to address the more important factors in the
Commission 's downfall. Detailed consideration is given to the potential strengths and pitfalls
involved in establishing a system of universal periodic review of the human rights performance of
every state, and of the need to learn from the dismal failure of a very similar exercise undertaken
by the Commission between 1956 and 1981. The article then considers some of the key reforms
that need to be undertaken in order to transform the system of 'special procedures' - currently
involving some 41 country and thematic mechanisms - into a more coherent, professional and
effective system for defending human rights and one which should be at the core of the work of
the new Council.]
CONTENTS
I Introduction .............................................................................. 186
II The Commission's Fall from Grace ................................................... 187
III Who Belongs? The Composition of the Commission on Human Rights and the
Human Rights Council.................................................................. 188
A The Historical Dimension...................................................... 189
B The Feasibility of Various Criteria for Membership....................... 191
1 The Emergence of Membership as the Key Concern ............. 191
2 The Quest to Identify Criteria for Membership.................... 193
3 Universality in Place of Selective Criteria......................... 196
C The Compromise on Council Membership................................... 198
1 Individual Election..................................................... 198
2 Electoral Majority ..................................................... 199
3 Term Limits ............................................................ 199
4 Pledges..................................................................200
5 Membership Suspension ..............................................201
*John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, Faculty Director of New York University Law
School's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Summary or Arbitrary Executions. This article is based upon
the lecture given as the 24' Allen Hope Southey Memorial Lecture at the University of
Melbourne in September 2005. I am deeply grateful to Dean Michael Crommelin, Professor
Anne Orford, John Tobin and other faculty members for their very warm hospitality during
my visit to the Law School. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the
members of the Melbourne Journal of International Law Editorial Board who assisted with
the editing of this article. At the time of writing I am the Chairperson of the Coordination
Committee established to facilitate and promote the work of the 41 Special Procedures
which report to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The comments in this paper do not
constitute those of the Committee and do not necessarily reflect the views of the other
mandate-holders represented in that Committee.
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Reconceiving the UN Human Rights Regime: Challenges Confronting the New UN Human Rights Council
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