UNITED NATIONS, March 28: The discredited United Nations Human Rights Commission ended its last meeting on Monday after adopting a resolution to transfer all its work to the recently created and stronger Human Rights Council, which is scheduled to hold its first meeting on June 19 in Geneva after the UN General Assembly votes on its members in May.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told the 62nd and final session of the Commission that the overwhelming General Assembly vote on March 15 to set up the 47-member Human Rights Council marked ‘a major stride forward’ for the UN’s human rights system, although she said there was still much to do.
“While we can say for sure that the decision taken in New York was one of historical significance, its actual impact on people’s lives is still to be determined. Much will rest on the profound culture shift that must accompany this institutional reform,” Ms Arbour said.
“The protection of human rights will thrive in a rigorous, frank and cooperative environment. Progress cannot be made in an atmosphere of distrust and disrespect and through the pursuit of narrow self-interest.”
Ms Arbour went on to say that it was important for the new council to ‘quickly find a way to deal with its substantive mandate’, adding that its credibility ‘requires quick action on matters of substance’, although she added that people should not forget some of the achievements in the last 60 years.
In particular, she highlighted the fact that in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the commission drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948.
However, despite these successes, the commission has come in for increasing criticism over the years as being ineffective and not accountable, and so the idea of the council was put forward by Kofi Annan a year ago.
