The information below is a brief introduction, as well as the three most important questions you should know, for participating in a complaint session of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council.
Human Rights Council Introduction:
“Human Rights” is an important area of international relations, and one that receives constant attention within the U.N., within states’ domestic policies, and within local arenas. There are countless resources, both on the local and international scale, that are put in place to monitor human rights conditions, and several means of ensuring that human rights are upheld. On the international scale, the U.N. has several outlets in place to monitor human rights, one of which is the Human Rights Council (HRC).
The Human Rights Council seeks to address situations of human rights violations in all 192 UN Member States, and make recommendations on them. The means by which the Human Rights Council monitors human rights in member states is three-fold: One part, The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, functions as an autonomous internal body that serves to constantly assess the human rights in all member states. Another part, the Advisory Committee, is a form of “think-tank” for the HRC, which advises based on expertise in specific thematic issue areas. Finally, the third part—and the part most relevant to NGOs and other groups seeking social justice and fair upholding of human rights—is the Complaint Procedure mechanism, which is a feature of the HRC which makes the entire body accessible to any individual or group seeking to bring violations of human rights to the attention of the Human Rights Council.
3 Important Questions:
What is the Complaint Procedure of the Human Rights Council?
The complaint procedure of the Human Rights Council addresses consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights and all fundamental freedoms occurring in any part of the world and under any circumstances. It generally deals with situations in countries rather than individuals. Nevertheless, any individual or group claiming to be the victim of such human rights violations may submit a complaint, as may any other person or group with direct and reliable knowledge of such violations. The whole Complaint Procedure remains confidential, and at no time is the public informed of the progress – unless the Council decides otherwise. This new Complaint Procedure has replaced the former “1503 Procedure” of the Commission on Human Rights.
More information on the Complaint Procedure is available on the website of the Council.
How does the Complaint Procedure function?
A complaint has to pass three stages: the Working Group (WG) on Communication, the WG on Situations and the Human Rights Council (HRC).
The WG on Communications, composed of independent experts, examines the admissibility of a communication before transmitting it to the state concerned. Once it has received the state’s comments, it decides on the admissibility of the case and assesses its merits. In doing so, it also considers whether the communication – alone or in combination with other communications – reveals a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. If so, the WG on Communications passes the case on to the WG on Situations.
The WG on Situations is composed of representatives of member States of the Council. Based on the information it has received from the WG on Communications, it decides whether to dismiss the case or to pass it on to the Council, the latter in the form of a report containing consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights as well as recommendations on action to be taken by the Council.
The Council may then decide on any of the following actions: to keep the situation under review and request further information from the concerned state, to appoint a highly qualified independent expert to monitor the situation and report back to the Council, to request the OHCHR to provide technical cooperation to the concerned state, to take up public consideration of the situation or to discontinue considering it.
How to submit information to the Complaint Procedure of the Human Rights Council?
This section is being developed right now
Helpful Links:
U.N. Human Rights Programme–Handbook for Civil Society