Forthcoming Election for New Member States of the UN Human Rights Council – Important Review & Analysis

Country Members of the UN Human Rights Council have a major responsibility to impact policies, resolutions, economic and human rights, social justice. The elected new States Parties, with the existing group, can absolutely help shape attention to human rights and social justice, and very much for women and children, and affect momentum for peace.

UN Human Rights Council Website: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/AboutCouncil.aspx

The International Service for Human Rights ISHR, has created a Scorecard for States now applying for Human Rights Council Membership. Scroll down for the details below.

Voting for new Member State applicants for the Human Rights Council will take place at the UN General Assembly on October 20, 2017.

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https://www.unelections.org/?q=node/29

Human Rights Council Election

 The Human Rights Council (HRC) was created by the General Assembly in 2006 for the purpose of addressing human rights violations, replacing the former UN Commission on Human Rights. Whereas the Commission was a functional commission of ECOSOC, the Council holds the higher status of a subsidiary body to the GA. ^[1]

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Background
The Council has 47 members with staggered terms of three years. Election rules are based on the HRC’s founding resolution. Members are elected in a secret ballot by a majority of the General Assembly members, whether or not they are present and voting – in other words, an absolute majority as opposed to the higher threshold of support a two-thirds majority would require. If any of the candidates fails to receive the minimum of 97 positive votes, they must compete in a second round against any additional high-scoring candidates. The same applies to candidates who are not officially running but who receive write-in votes from GA members. Seats are distributed to each geographic region as follows:

Each membership term lasts for three years. Members can serve two consecutive terms but will not be eligible for immediate re-election afterwards in order to prevent de facto permanent membership.

Criteria for Membership
GA Resolution 60/251 states that “when electing members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments thereto” (Paragraph 8). These are the only stated criteria for membership in the Council. The pledge states that the country will uphold international standards of human rights and enumerates actions undertaken by that state in advancing and protecting human rights. It typically includes a listing of their involvement in international institutions.

In addition, candidates must accept that they will be subjected to periodic peer-reviews of their human rights record if they gain a seat on the Council. Amnesty International has issued recommended pledges for candidate countries.

ISHR – International Service for Human Rights –

ISHR has published ‘scorecards’ for each of the States seeking election to the UN Human Rights Council for 2018-2020.

To coincide with the #HRCpledging events in New York and Geneva hosted by ISHR and Amnesty International, ISHR has published a ‘scorecard’ for each State standing for election to the UN Human Rights Council.

The scorecards offer a quick ‘at-a-glance’ objective comparison of the candidates, focusing on their cooperation with the Council, their support for civil society, their engagement with UN treaty bodies and special procedures, whether they have spoken out in concern about reprisals, and whether they have established a national human rights institution.

‘If the Human Rights Council is to be the legitimate, influential body that the global human rights situation demands, it is essential that member States undertake to uphold the highest human rights standards and to cooperate fully with the Council – as required by GA resolution 60/251. It is integral that Council members comply with international standards and legal obligations,’ said ISHR’s Human Right Council Advocacy Director Michael Ineichen.

‘To ensure that human rights defenders and civil society actors can rely on the Human Rights Council to promote human rights progress on the ground, its member States must be genuinely committed to promoting universal human rights and defending those who advocate for them,’ added Ineichen.

The scorecards and #HRCpledging event are an important contribution in this regard.

While the scorecards are intended to increase scrutiny and enhance transparency in the elections, ISHR acknowledges that data limitations and the need for objectivity mean that many of the criteria are concerned with form rather than substance.

‘The fact that a State has accepted a high number of UPR recommendations, has consistently sent replies to communications received from special procedures or has no outstanding treaty body reports, says nothing about the extent to which recommendations from those mechanisms have been implemented on the ground,’ said ISHR’s Legal Counsel Tess McEvoy.

‘We enourage these ‘at-a-glance’ scorecards to be read in conjunction with the more in-depth reporting on country situations and a country’s human rights record produced by the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,’ McEvoy said.

‘We urge voting States to treat human rights considerations as paramount in electing members to the Council, rather than engaging in vote trading or privileging political or economic considerations over fundamental human rights.’

Voting on candidates for the Human Rights Council will take place at the UN General Assembly on 20 October 2017.  

Scorecards are available for:

• Australia
• Afghanistan
• Angola
• Chile
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Nepal
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Peru
• Qatar
• Senegal
• Slovakia
• Spain
• Ukraine

These scorecards should be used in conjunction with other important tools, such as the world reports produced by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and the election guide published by the Universal Rights Group.

Public pledges on a States’ candidacy are another valuable contribution. To date, the following candidate States have published a public pledge – Angola, Afghanistan, Australia, Chile, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar and Slovakia.