Old and new challenges for the Human Rights Council as it turns 20
“Human rights were built for moments like this,” said Awa Dabo, the newly appointed Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, “when rights have come under pressure, when people need protection and principles must turn into action.” Created to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights, the 47 Member States of the new Council were urged to avoid “political point-scoring or petty manoeuvre” – the words of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 19 June 2006.Now, in its 62nd session in Geneva, the Council is busier than ever as it pushes for accountability in many new emergencies and unresolved crises. But, has it matched up to expectations? And has it adapted to a world where “human rights are under assault [and] violated flagrantly?”, as UN chief António Guterres underscored in a special event on Friday marking two decades of the Council.‘It was not easy’“Building the Council was not an easy task,” recalls Luis Alfonso de Alba Góngora, its first president.“Member States have very different views of what needed to be changed and what needed to be retained from the old Commission [on Human Rights].It was not easy because the international context situation was not good either; there were countries that opposed the creation of the Human Rights Council and were not supporting the building of the new institution. There were conflicts in Gaza, as today, conflicts in Lebanon…It was not easy.”Every voice countsIn common with other UN bodies, one of the Council’s aims at its creation was to include as wide a range of participants in its discussions, from governmental to non-governmental speakers and from independent investigators to civil society activists.
