Monitoring
Mechanisms

United Nations

Missions

Bodies

General Assembly

Economic and
Social Council

Human Rights Council

High Commissioner

International
mechanisms

Conventional

Extra-conventional

Complaint procedures

The General Assembly is the main deliberative body of the United Nations. Made up of 186 Member States, it reviews and takes action on human rights matters referred to it by its Third Committee and by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

[A subsidiary body of the General Assembly concerned with human rights is the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.]

  THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

The Economic and Social Council, composed of 54 member Governments, makes recommendations to the General Assembly on human rights matters, reviews reports and resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights and transmits them with amendments to the General Assembly. To assist it in its work, the Council established the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. It also works closely with agencies of the United Nations system, which have a special interest in human rights matters.

  THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The 15th of March 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that allowed the creation of a Human Rights Council. According to the text of the resolution, the Council is "in charge of the promotion of universal respect and the protection of all human rights and fundamental liberties, for all, without any kind of distinction, in justice and in equity".

The principle of the establishment of a Human Rights Council, "as a General Assembly subsidiary organ", proposed by Kofi Annan, UN's Secretary-General, was decided during the World Summit in September 2005, by the leaders of the Member States.

The Human Rights Council substitutes the Human Rights Commission and has its headquarters in Geneva. The Council is formed by representatives (elected on 9th of May 2006) from 47 UN Member States.

The main factors distinguishing the Council from the Commission are as follows:

The General Assembly resolution, which establishes the Human Rights Council, explicitly indicates that human rights are one of the three fundamental principles of the United Nations next to development, security and peace;
the Council is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and as such has a higher institutional status than the Commission which was a functional organ of the Social and Economic Commission;
it will hold a minimum of three sessions lasting at least ten weeks each year, which should strengthen dialogue and cooperation, and if necessary may organise special sessions on the demand of one-third of its members. This way it will be able to react more rapidly to crises;
it will have a periodic universal evaluation mechanism, whereby the compliance of all Member States in human rights' matters will be evaluated, particularly that of the Councils' Member States.
it is comprised of 47 members (the Commission had 53) elected by the General Assembly on an absolute majority basis for a period of three years; it will not be possible for members to be re-elected after two successive mandates. After six years, a State must wait a year before submitting candidacy. Nominations are made on an equitable regional basis. Representatives from Asia and Africa will be reinforced.
to ensure the credibility of the new body, candidates for seats on the Council are invited to express voluntary commitments with respect to human rights;
in the event of serious and systematic violations of human rights, a member may be suspended by a two third majority of the General Assembly.

The 47 states, elected members of the Council, are in alphabetical order: Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Ecuador, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Netherlands, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Zambia.

[The Human Rights Commission (HRC) was the UN supreme organ that was ensuring the respect of human rights; it was also the main world forum on that topic. Established in 1946, it was comprised of 53 Member States, elected for three years and representing the five continents. Its headquarters were in Geneva, during six weeks in Spring (March - April), every year.

Independent experts submitted reports on the abuses committed by countries or on particular themes (torture, abduction, arbitrary detention, women's and children's rights, etc.).

Every year, the Commission adopted about a hundred decisions. At the end of the six-week meeting, the important moment of the session was the voting of resolutions that condemned the worse actions. States feared these admonitions of symbolical and political value, even if in most cases, they only led to a formal investigation.

The Commission was largely discredited because its members came from countries that violated human rights and because it had a tendency to condemn only small countries, not the greater, more influential powers.]

The Commission on Human rights has established a number of subsidiary bodies, including the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Its 26 members are independent experts from all regions of the world who meet each year for four weeks in Geneva. The Subcommission has established several working groups and nominated Special Rapporteurs who focus on contemporary forms of slavery, including forced labour, illegal and pseudo-legal adoptions aiming at the exploitation of children, and sexual slavery during wartime. They also consider human rights issues concerning domestic and migrant workers and they examine preventive measures for the elimination of violence against women.

The Commission on the Status of Women, composed of 32 members, prepares recommendations and reports to the Economic and Social Council on the promotion of women's rights in political, economic, social and educational fields. It makes recommendations to the Council on problems requiring attention in the field of women's rights.

The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, composed of 40 members, is the main United nations policy-making body on criminal justice. It develops and monitors the United nations programme on crime prevention

  OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

In 1997, as part of wide-ranging reforms to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan placed human rights at the heart of all work of the Organisation. The United Nations is thus enhancing its human rights programme by integrating a human rights focus into the entire range of the Organisation's activities. In addition, the High Commissioner's Office and the Centre for Human Rights were consolidated into a single Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This merger gave the new High Commissioner a solid institutional basis from which to lead the Organisation's mission in the domain of human rights.

Three branches of the High Commissioner's Office now perform the functional activities of the former Centre for Human Rights: the Research and Right to Development Branch, the Support Services Branch and the Activities and Programmes Branch.

The Research and Right to Development Branch is involved in all activities related to the promotion and protection of the right to development, and is also responsible for carrying out research projects. It also supports all thematic mandates and the work of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

The Support Services Branch serves as a secretariat to the six treaty bodies, the voluntary funds and to the Commission on Human Rights and its subsidiary bodies. It also processes the hundreds of thousands of complaints from individuals addressed to the United Nations each year.

The Activities and Programmes Branch co-ordinates all Advisory Services and Technical Co-operation Projects and the human rights field offices worldwide. It manages the Voluntary Funds for Advisory Services and Technical Co-operation Projects and for Field Presence, and is responsible for implementing the Plan of Action for the Decade for Human Rights Education. The Branch provides support to the Special Rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights, and maintains country desk offices dealing with the human rights situation in specific countries.

At the heart of the United Nations monitoring system are the two types of human rights monitoring mechanisms. The so-called conventional mechanisms refer to the specific committees formally established through the principal international human rights treaties. These "treaty bodies" monitor the implementation of the individual conventions by the States parties.

Over the years, the United Nations has also developed an independent and ad hoc system of fact-finding outside the treaty framework, which is referred to as extra-conventional mechanisms or "Special Procedures". Independent experts report in their personal capacity as special rapporteurs or as members of working groups.