For China, the recently established UN Human Rights Council is a victory of multilateralism
This spring witnessed a significant reform in the United Nations human rights protection mechanism. On March 15, the UN General Assembly approved a draft resolution, with a 170 to 4 vote and 3 abstentions, to create a Human Rights Council (HRC). Then, March 23, the UN Economic and Social Council agreed to formally abolish its subordinated Human Rights Committee as of June 16.
This means the UN has legally completed the reform of its human rights mechanism, putting an end to the 60-year-old Human Rights Committee and starting a new chapter of the HRC. This is another significant achievement in the UN reform process after the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission.
The hard-won resolution A/60/L.48 is an important achievement made by various countries through tough negotiations that lasted for more than five months.
In September 2005, the UN world summit decided to establish a human rights council to replace the 53-country, Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission and “request the President of the General Assembly to conduct open, transparent and inclusive negotiations, to be completed as soon as possible during the 60th session, with the aim of establishing the mandate, modalities, functions, size, composition, membership, working methods and procedures of the Council.”
Establishing such a council is one of the important tasks of the 60th UN General Assembly. Negotiations started in October 2005 and several rounds of consultations were held in early 2006. However, these negotiations failed to reach consensus owing to a large divergence on some key issues such as the council’s size and membership, and especially the divergence between the South and the North. The United States also differed significantly on its views compared with other countries.
The deeper reason for the wide divergence between South and North lies fundamentally in the different thinking on the new council. The North strongly required the establishment of a small human rights council and intended to raise the threshold to access to the council by stipulating access norms, and aiming to easily control the council.
But the South insisted the reform should place emphasis on the working style of the council and increase its representatives, so that the new body could serve as an ideal arena for various countries to conduct dialogues, exchanges and cooperation for improving human rights.
Mediated by Jan Eliasson, President of the 16th session of the UN General Assembly, most countries finally accepted the resolution, which while still imperfect, shows their constructive, compromising attitudes. Thus, the approval of resolution A/60/L.48 is a victory of multilateralism, offering a successful case of multilateral diplomacy.
The establishment of the HRC has great significance in promoting human rights globally. Eliasson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and other highly respected world figures believe it will further elevate the status of the human rights mechanism in the UN system and solidify human rights as a pillar of the UN.
The HRC is also expected to play an important role in protecting and promoting human rights by raising the value of human rights, devising related norms and responding to cases of large-scale and systematic human rights violations. With the approach of the HRC election, the human rights situations in some countries will draw public attention and will be discussed in the coming months.
The establishment of the HRC is undoubtedly a great achievement in UN reform. The breakthrough on this important but sensitive issue means the UN and its member countries can concentrate their efforts on and put more resources into other important reform issues, such as reform of the UN Secretariat, eradication of poverty and promotion of development.
New council, new setup
Compared with the old Human Rights Committee, under the UN Economic and Social Council, the newly established HRC has a higher position in the UN system, sitting directly under the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile, the size and the composition of the human rights unit are changing. According to the resolution, the 47-seat council will consist of 13 seats from the African group, 13 from the Asian group, six from the Eastern European group, eight from the Latin American and Caribbean group and seven from the Western European and other countries group.
The members will be elected directly and individually by secret ballot by the majority of all General Assembly members. When electing council members, the UN General Assembly is to take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights. HRC members will serve for a period of three years and will not be eligible for immediate reelection after two consecutive terms. The General Assembly, by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting, may suspend the rights of membership of a council member that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.
The size of the HRC is set at five seats smaller than the Human Rights Committee, but the access threshold is expected to greatly increase. This means that no country, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, has the automatic privilege to enter the HRC, and there are no permanent members. Even though a country may be recognized by its regional group, it will not necessarily become a member of the council.
Importantly, the HRC will review the human rights situation of all its 191 member countries, widely considered to be an innovative move. It is the source of the HRC’s vitality, as well as a real challenge it will face, to ensure universality, objectivity and non-selectivity when considering human rights issues and to operate the council guided by constructive international dialogue and cooperation.
China’s role
The Chinese Government’s position is that it attaches great importance to the human rights issue and takes various measures to promote and protect the human rights of its people. It also supports and actively takes part in international dialogues and cooperation on human rights issues, supporting the UN’s roles in human rights protection and hailing necessary and reasonable reform to UN human rights mechanisms.
Under this policy orientation, China takes an active, cooperative and constructive attitude towards establishing the HRC. A Chinese delegation actively participated in consultation on the establishment of the new council.
China put forward many constructive ideas to help the HRC balance the divergence between developing and developed countries. Pushed by China, the resolution, for the first time, confirms the principle of cooperation and dialogue on human rights issues and reiterates that human rights cooperation should be conducted according to the principles of universality, objectivity and non-selectivity and the elimination of double standards and politicization.
Because of the joint efforts of China and other Asian countries, the Asian group gains one more seat against the background that the HRC has fewer seats than the Human Rights Committee.
China took a multilateral, compromising attitude during HRC consultations. However, China isn’t satisfied with some parts of the resolution.
For example, the number of seats in the HRC is less than China’s expectations. On the issue of HRC member election, China insists on the majority system, that is, a member elected by the majority of countries present and voting. However, China finally accepted the absolute majority system.
Meanwhile, China regrets that the resolution does not set a threshold for a country’s specific resolution. According to the Chinese Government, one of the important reasons for the poor reputation of the Human Rights Committee is that a specific resolution from some countries to condemn the human rights of others at the annual meeting of the committee directly leads to serious political confrontation.
Most of the resolutions are targeted at developing countries, with political motivations and goals. These motions can’t improve the level of human rights protection and promotion, and are harmful to international human rights cooperation. However, despite these concerns, China voted in the affirmative on the resolution.
China also expressed its hope and concerns to the council. Zhang Yishan, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the human rights issue should be dealt with impartially and in a non-discriminatory manner to avoid double standards and politicization, and to promote genuine dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights. Measures should be taken to avoid the recurrence of political confrontation at the Human Rights Commission, and to effectively promote human rights and basic freedom for all people.
However, Zhang also made it clear that the draft resolution failed to fully reflect the concerns of many developing countries, including China, on some issues.
“First, it does not provide effective guarantees to prevent political confrontation caused by a country’s specific resolution, which has become a chronic problem at the Commission on Human
Rights,” Zhang said.
“Second, the universal periodic review to be developed by the council may overlap with the work of human rights treaty bodies and special mechanisms, thus increasing the reporting burdens for developing countries,” he added.
“Third, according to our understanding, recommendations by the council are limited to the General Assembly.”
Zhang said China would further express its concerns during consultations after the council is established.
He also expressed China’s hope of further cooperation. According to Zhang, with the establishment of the HRC, reform in the UN human rights field will continue. China would like to continue its close cooperation with various parties with active and open attitudes, and actively participate in the work of the HRC so that the UN human rights mechanism can abandon confrontation and devote itself to dialogue and cooperation for the healthy development of human rights protection.
The author is a doctorate holder with the China Institute of International Studies