The old Commission ceased its work on 16 June 2006 . The new council was setup as subsidiary organ of the General Assembly of UN, and according to the resolution, which established it, shall be responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner. This was done in the recognition of importance of ensuring universality, objectivity and non-selectivity in the consideration of human rights issues, and of elimination of double standard and politicization.

The Commission on Human Rights, which had been the main UN organ to deal with human rights had been regarded as discredited because its selectivity when choosing countries for scrutiny and its failure to deal with urgent situation. The criticism was in particular caused by its membership, which included some notorious offenders. Furthermore, strong reproaches were expressed regarding the alleged deterioration of key procedure of the Commission: it annuary debate on human rights violation. This procedure had become, it was said, increasingly fraught with politicizing and unfair selectivity.

As result, a credibility deficit developed and it became common to speak about the discredited Commission. The crisis of Commission, latent for many years, gained momentum from 2004. The new Human Rights Council represents a historic new chapter (see “A New Chapter for Human Rights”, International Service for Human Rights and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, June 2006) in the UN's consideration of human rights issues. General Assembly resolution 60/251 sets out central principles and a broad framework for the HRC, but much remains to be filled in with respect to its modus operandi.

The paper is organized as follows. The first section describes the evolution of the Commission on human rights from its initial formulation to its recent rediscovery in a Council that is efficient, effective, credible and responsive after its dark age. The second section briefly outlines the main contents of the new Human Rights Council and the third section clarifies its fields of application and potentialities, which are rather different from those of the Commission. The fourth section makes the overview of the Council’s first three years of work.


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Mode officiel de citation : Jean-Baptiste HARELIMANA, « The new Human Rights Council: between continuity and innovation », Multipol, novembre 2008, http://www.multipol.org.