Reconceiving the UN Human Rights Regime: Challenges Confronting the New UN Human Rights Council

In 2006, the UN Commission on Human Rights, established 60 years earlier, was replaced by a new Human Rights Council. This article examines the widely differing reasons given for the Commission's loss of credibility and seeks to draw lessons relevant to the new institutional regime which the Council must build. It argues that the preoccupation with the Council's composition, and the exclusion of violators, fails to address the more important factors in the Commission's downfall. Detailed consideration is given to the potential strengths and pitfalls involved in establishing a system of universal periodic review of the human rights performance of every state, and of the need to learn from the dismal failure of a very similar exercise undertaken by the Commission between 1956 and 1981. The article then considers some of the key reforms that need to be undertaken in order to transform the system of 'special procedures' - currently involving some 41 country and thematic mechanisms - into a more coherent, professional and effective system for defending human rights and one which should be at the core of the work of the new Council.