ABSTRACT
The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council was established by General Assembly Resolution 251/60 on 19 June 2006, replacing the former Commission on Human Rights, an institution that had been widely criticised by governments, the UN, academics and civil society organisations alike. The Commission, established in 1946 as a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, was the central inter-governmental platform within the United Nations to take action on emerging human rights situations. It was criticised for its ‘selective and political’ approaches to human rights situations where developing countries were subjected to the Commission’s severe scrutiny and criticism. The fact that the Commission was not created as a principal organ of the United Nations was also identified as an institutional weakness which denied the Commission the opportunity to bring human rights concerns to principal organs of the United Nations.
