3 April 2006 – So far 17 Member
States have announced their candidacies for next month's election to
the new 47-member Human Rights Council that replaces the
much-criticized and now defunct Human Rights Commission, which held
its final session last Monday.
The elections are scheduled to take place in the General Assembly
on 9 May and a UN spokesperson told reporters today that the Member
States that have chosen to announce their candidacies in writing are
being listed on the General Assembly website, at www.un.org/ga/60/elect/hrc/. The Council will hold its
first meeting on 19 June.
The 17 countries to have announced their candidacies on the
website are: Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Czech Republic, Georgia,
Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru,
Nicaragua, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Switzerland.
Addressing the final session of the Commission last week, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the overwhelming
General Assembly vote on 15 March setting up the Human Rights
Council marked “a major stride forward” for the UN's human rights
system, although she said there was still much to do.
“While we can say for sure that the decision taken in New York
was one of historical significance, its actual impact on people's
lives is still to be determined. Much will rest on the profound
culture shift that must accompany this institutional reform,” Ms.
Arbour said.
The Commission – which held just one session annually in Geneva –
came in for increasing criticism over the years as being ineffective
and not accountable, and so the idea of the Human Rights Council was
put forward by Secretary-General Kofi Annan a year ago.
The Council has several elements making it a stronger body than
the Commission, including its higher status as a subsidiary body of
the General Assembly, its increased number of meetings throughout
the year, equitable geographical representation and also the voting
rights associated with membership.
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