ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine the Council's powers, functions, composition, and election and critically assess its workings. It focuses on the Council's flagship mechanism – the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – and its effectiveness in ensuring compliance by States with their human rights obligations. The main purpose of the Council is to address situations of human rights violations within all member States of the UN and make recommendations on them. It is expected to address situations of on-going violations within States and especially gross and systemic violations. The Human Rights Council has a number of new features compared to its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights. A large number of resolutions, many of which are repetitive and bloated, are passed in Geneva at every session of the Council with marginal impact outside of the Geneva-based diplomatic-cum-human rights community. In many respects, the Advisory Committee can be regarded as a successor to the former Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
