UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHT COMMISSION
The human rights council is a body that was created by the United Nations. The United Nations Members states created the collection. By the virtue that it is a United Nations body, the human rights council reports directly to the General Assembly. The structure of the administration of the council begins with how the representative members are chosen. The commission is made up of forty-seven representatives that represent the rest 96 members. It is the 96 member states of the United Nations that accept the 47 council members. Each of these principle posts is distributed in line with the region principle of the United Nations.
In terms of administration, the council is led by one president and four other vices who are elected from the five regional groups. Each selected period for the administration and the leadership lasts for three years. The council operates independently and meets three to four times in a year, with an overall span of at least ten weeks. Then ten weeks period is frequent enough to help the council analyze if they are achieving their primary objectives. Member states have the responsibility of reviewing the universal system of justice if they make their main objectives and others embedded within the main one.
The main objective of the council is to ensure that member states adhere to international standards of human rights. The other objectives of the board include; developing friendly relations among nations based on the principle of respect for human rights and equal self-determination of people. A comprehensive analysis of how the United Nations Human Rights Council is focused on achieving its main objective is through implementing regional and national policies that safeguard the human rights of each of their members. In recent times a number of these policies have been achieved with a lot more innovative ways. In recent times, the council has invented a series of public scrutiny on every member state in an account of their human rights performances. Emergency sessions have been summoned during crisis moments to address gross violations of human rights in member states. Such an emergency session proves the dedication that the council has in ensuring that human rights achievements are not violated.
Based on the achievements of the united nation human rights council, it is clear that they are partially achieving their goal of ensuring that human rights all over the world are respected. The mentioned analysis can be justified through the following involvements. Firstly, the united nation human rights council funds and commission fact-finding investigations on high profile cases among member states. An example of a High profile case that the council delivered quite well was the case in Syria where there were people charged and indicted for their violations of human rights that ranged from violence against women to denial of freedom of expression against opposition leaders.
Secondly, the council has also been able to scrutinize every report done by each of the member states regarding their accomplishment of preventing human right violation. It is through these reports that the council has been able to authoritatively unravel intricate patterns of abuse and recommend the perpetrators to accountability, reform, and justice. Such scrutinies of the country’s report have led to the unearthing of violations in Iran, Syria, and Burundi, to mention a few countries. Scrutiny procedure is one proof that the council is achieving is fulfilling its mandate and achieving its objectives.
Another way through which the Human Rights Council has achieved its mandated and objective is by making its organs and structures easily accessible to the civil societies that operate in different countries. Of all the United Nation’s compositions, the human rights council remains the most open and available. By making it accessible, all human rights under international law are getting their chance to be heard. Listening to expert panels, non-governmental organizations, civil societies provide positive criticism for the council, which is essential for keeping the board on its toes on achieving equality. The office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ensures that the council’s program is more transparent and encourages all its facilities to engage with all related or non-related stakeholders. The commission even goes ahead to protect human rights defenders from reprisals. Appreciating efforts implemented by the whistleblowers through protection is another way that proves the functioning levels of the human right commission.
As a legislative body that represents several powerful nations in the world, it has imperfections on particular aspects of the council. However, the best option for them is that they stay actively engaged in shaping the destiny and influence of achieving human rights. Some of the imperfections that limit the council from attaining their objectives include criteria for membership.
The UN general assembly is responsible for electing members to the council based on the contribution of each of the members. These criteria lead to the predominance of the United Nations to non-democratic states. There are non democratic states that do not interfere with human rights of any individuals. If the election of members continue in the same criteria such nation will never get representatives which is so disappointing. Each time member states which even do not meet criteria will be re-elected just because they are perceived to be strongholds of democracy. Election acceptance base on loyalty is not the best thing that can happen in terms of earning membership. The council and the general assembly should revise their rules on choosing members of the council. The new rules should be inclusive and not based on loyalty.
From the analysis, it is logical to conclude that the UN human right council is achieving its mandated in a huge manner except for the membership plan. The council should continue achieving its goals but think about a new membership strategy.