United Nations Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is in the United Nations System. The UNHRC took the place of the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR). It was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The meeting room of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The General Assembly made the UNHRC on 15 March 2006. This was to replace the previous CHR. People did not like the CHR because they allowed countries with poor human rights records to be members.^[1][2]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson have not liked that the council acts for politics instead of human rights. Several people have said the council focuses too much on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.^[3][4][5] The United States did not take part in the Council when George W. Bush was president. They changed when Barack Obama became President.^[6]

On 18 June 2007, the UNHRC made a plan for future work. They will assess the human rights in all 192 UN Member States. They will also allow people and organizations to bring complaints about human rights violations to the attention of the Council.

Presidents

No.	Name	Country	Time
17	Václav Bálek [Wikidata]	Czech Republic	1 January 2023 – present[7]
16	Federico Villegas	Argentina	1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022[8]
15	Nazahat Shameen Khan	Fiji	1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021[9]
14	Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger	Austria	1 January 2020 – 31 December 2020[10]
13	Coly Seck	Senegal	1 January 2019 – 31 December 2019
12	Vojislav Šuc	Slovenia	1 January 2018 – 31 December 2018
11	Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli	El Salvador	1 January 2017 – 31 December 2017
10	Choi Kyong-lim	South Korea	1 January 2016 – 31 December 2016[11]
9	Joachim Rücker	Germany	1 January 2015 – 31 December 2015
8	Baudelaire Ndong Ella	Gabon	1 January 2014 – 31 December 2014
7	Remigiusz Henczel	Poland	1 January 2013 – 31 December 2013[12]
6	Laura Dupuy Lasserre	Uruguay	19 June 2011 – 31 December 2012
5	Sihasak Phuangketkeow	Thailand	19 June 2010 – 18 June 2011[13]
4	Alex Van Meeuwen	Belgium	19 June 2009 – 18 June 2010[13]
3	Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi	Nigeria	19 June 2008 – 18 June 2009
2	Doru Romulus Costea	Romania	19 June 2007 – 18 June 2008
1	Luis Alfonso de Alba	Mexico	19 June 2006 – 18 June 2007

References

1. "UN creates new human rights body". BBC. 15 March 2006.
2. http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=A/60/PV.72&Lang=E
3. Secretary-General urges human rights activists to ‘fill leadership vacuum’, hold world leaders to account, in address to international day event, UN Department of Public Information 8 12 2008
4. UN's Ban faults rights council over Israel, Reuters (reprinted in Ynet News 21 06 2007
5. Human Rights Council president wants reform Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, SwissInfo 29 09 2007
6. Lynch, Colum (1 April 2009). "U.S. to Seek Seat on U.N. Human Rights Council". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
7. "Human Rights Council elects Václav Bálek of the Czech Republic as its President for 2023". UN OHCR. UN. 9 December 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
8. "Human Rights Council elects Federico Villegas of Argentina as its president for 2022". UN OHCR. UN. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
9. Farge, Emma (January 15, 2021). "Fiji wins presidency of U.N. rights body after vote unblocks leadership impasse". msn.com. Reuters. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
10. "President of the 14th Cycle". Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
11. The Human Rights Council elects Ambassador Ambassador Choi Kyong-lim of the Republic of Korea as its new President. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
12. Section, United Nations News Service (10 December 2012). "UN News – UN Human Rights Council: new President will help promote human rights equitably". UN News Service Section.
13. "Human Rights Council – Membership of the Human Rights Council". .ohchr.org. Archived from the original on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2011.