Human Rights Council (HRC)

Although Human Rights have been a fundamental concern of the United Nations since its beginnings, the United Nations Human Rights Council is, in fact, a very new body in the organization. The Council is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which was in recent years often criticised for its corruption and hypocrisy within the body, giving high-profile positions to member states that did not guarantee the human rights of their own citizens.

Therefore, the United Nations General Assembly passed GA resolution 60/251 on 15 March 2006, which created the new human rights body, with the approval of 170 members of the (then) 191-nation Assembly.

The 47-seat Human Rights Council had replaced the former 53-member Commission on Human Rights. Whilst the Commission was a subsidiary to ECOSOC, the Council has the status of a subsidiary body of the General Assembly. Now, the member states must be approved by the GA, they are subject to suspension by the GA and may not hold office for more than two terms running.