Human Rights Reform in the United Nations

Ambassador Razali Ismail's Statement to the General Assembly plenary meeting, 17 September 1996, <www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/unchr50/tab.htm#(1)> at 9 May 2006.

Chavez Linda , ‘The UN has Become Irrelevant’ (2005), Human Events <findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200502/ai_n9521999> at 9 May 2006.

The process began in 1997 with the Secretary General's Report Renewing the United Nations: A Program for Reform A/51/950, 14 July 1997. Further reports have since been published including In Larger Freedom: Towards Development Security and Human Rights for All A/59/2005, 21 March 2005 which mapped out organisational priorities including poverty alleviation, development, the prevention of conflict and human rights; and Investing in the UN: For A Stronger Organization Worldwide A/60/692, 7 March 2006 which dealt with reform of the management of the Secretariat.

The votes were 170 in favour and four against. The four countries which voted against the Council were the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau. Venezuela, Iran and Belarus abstained.

Bayefsky Anne , ‘A Commission by Another Name: The U.N.'s Human-rights Cure is Worse than the Disease’ (2006) <www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=3886> at 9 May 2006.

Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, 23 February 2006, ‘High Commissioner for Human Rights Urges Support for Human Rights Council’ <www.ohchr.org/english/press/hrc/hrc-hc-english.pdf> at 9 May 2006.

Resolution establishing the Council, A/Res/60/251, 15 March, 2006, para 8.

Established by ECOSOC pursuant to art 68 of the UN Charter.

Human rights are referred to seven times in the Charter, namely in the Preamble and in arts 1, 13, 55, 62, 68 and 76.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), opened for signature 19 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), opened for signature 16 December 1966, 993 UNTS 3 (entered into force 3 January 1976).

Named after the number of the resolution passed by the ECOSOC. The procedure was amended in 2000 but continued to be referred to as the 1503 Procedure.

Resolution 1503(XLVIII) of the ECOSOC para 5.

See <http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/stat1.htm>at 9 May 2006.

Tolley Howard Jr , ‘The Concealed Crack in the Citadel: The United Nations Commission on Human Rights' Response to Confidential Communications’ (1984) 6(4) Human Rights Quarterly 420, 454 where the authors cites the example of a smaller country such as Benin, without influential supporters, being subjected to greater review than more powerful states with support from regional blocs.

See, eg, Libya: Towards Ensuring Human Rights Protection. Initial Findings of Amnesty International Visit (2004) <http://www.web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE190052004?open&of=ENG-LBY> at 9 May 2006. This report refers to people being convicted for peaceful political activities; the use of arbitrary detention; torture; disappearances; and the widespread application of the death penalty.

Buhrer Jean-Claude , UN Commission on Human Rights Loses all Credibility (2003) Reporters Without Borders <http://www.rsf.org> at 9 May 2006.

E/CN.4/2003/L.11.

Buhrer , above n 16.

Rules of Procedure of the Functional Commissions of the Economic and Social Council r 65, art 2 states: ‘A motion requiring that no decision be taken on a proposal shall have priority over that proposal’.

Resolution 2003/59, 24 April 2003, para 8(a).

See, eg, Al-Qad R , Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (2002) and The United Nations and Rwanda, 1993–1996, Dept of Public Information, United Nations (1996).

‘Secretary-General's statement on the Human Rights Council’, 23 February 2006, <http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=1933> at 9 May 2006.

Resolution establishing the Council, above n 7, para 6.

The Secretary General In Larger Freedom: Towards Development Security and Human Rights for All 21 March, 2005 A/59/2005, para 183.

Resolution establishing the Council, above n 7, para 8.

The United States has ratified the ICCPR; the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The United States has refused to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the ICSECR; and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Should states be measured only against treaties they have ratified? Or all of the seven major human rights conventions regardless of whether they are a signatory? Could customary international law be used as a measure, for example consider whether state has engaged in genocide or torture?

The seven countries are: d'Ivoire Cote , Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan.

Resolution establishing the Council, above n 7, para 16.

‘A Caterpillar with Lipstick’, Chicago Tribune (Chicago), 26 February 2006.

Meisler Stanley , ‘It Works Well. Tweak It: Right-wing Critics want to use Reform as a Club to Beat the Independence out of the World Body’, Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles), 6 November, 2005.