On the results of the First and Second Sessions of the UN Council for Human Rights

Abstract

The initial stage of the activities of the new UN body for human rights was marked by the adoption of several procedural decisions, which allowed the Council for Human rights to provide succession to the UN Commission for Human Rights. But this lead to a low effectiveness of the Council demonstrated on the first two sessions. In this respect the institute of special sessions offers itself for analysis, as during sessions the Council adopted its first decisions concerning acute problems. These special sessions were marked by the increased influence of Muslim countries and lessening influence of the Americans and Europeans (due to inner disagreements) what lead to the fact that primary topics of the sessions were focused on the Middle East particularly on Palestine and Lebanon. Countries of the BRIC group in turn have all the opportunities of increasing its influence in the Council. The weak link in the Council is represented by Nigeria, Gabon and Cameroon, due to the renewed idea of extra requirements for several countries concerning the protection of human rights in those countries. The analysis of the texts of final resolutions of both special sessions testifies to the fact that their goal was primarily political and most of its decisions are unbalanced, what is explained by the context of their adoption. The process of implementation of these decisions showed that there are problems, which should be solved to enhance the effectiveness of the Council. This situation requires from the member states of the Council to create mechanisms that would allow to involve all the interested parties in the process of adoption of the decisions of the Council and also to solve the problem of financing the activities of the Council in order for it to function independently and effectively.