United Nations Human Rights Council facts for kids

Quick facts for kids United Nations Human Rights Council
Emblem of the UNHRC
History
Founded	15 March 2006; 18 years ago (2006-03-15)
Leadership
President	Jürg Lauber
Structure
Seats	African States (13)      Asia-Pacific States (13)      Eastern European States (6)      Latin American and Caribbean States (8)      Western European and Other States (7)
Meeting place
The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room is the meeting room of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland
Website
HRC at the ohchr.org

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.

The Council investigates allegations of breaches of human rights in United Nations member states and addresses thematic human rights issues like freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, women's rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.

The Council was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 March 2006 to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR, herein CHR). The Council works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and engages the United Nations special procedures. The Council has been strongly criticized for including member countries that engage in human rights abuses.

Structure

The members of the General Assembly elect the members who occupy 47 seats of the Human Rights Council. The term of each seat is three years, and no member may occupy a seat for more than two consecutive terms. The previous CHR had a membership of 53 countries elected by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) through a majority of those present and voting.

Sessions

The UNHRC holds regular sessions three times a year, in March, June, and September. The UNHRC can decide at any time to hold a special session to address human rights violations and emergencies, at the request of one-third of the member states. As of November 2023^[update], there had been 36 special sessions.

Members

The Council consists of 47 members, elected yearly by the General Assembly for staggered three-year terms. Members are selected via the basis of equitable geographic rotation using the United Nations regional grouping system. Members are eligible for re-election for one additional term, after which they must relinquish their seat.

The seats are distributed along the following lines:

• 13 for the African Group
• 13 for the Asia-Pacific Group
• 6 for the Eastern European Group
• 8 for the Latin American and Caribbean Group
• 7 for the Western European and Others Group

Current

Term	Asia-Pacific States (13)	African States (13)	Eastern European States (6)	Latin American & Caribbean States (8)	Western European & Other States (7)
2025–2027	Cyprus  Marshall Islands  Qatar  South Korea  Thailand	Benin  DR Congo  Ethiopia  Gambia  Kenya	Czechia  North Macedonia	Bolivia  Colombia  Mexico	Iceland  Spain  Switzerland
2024–2026	China  Indonesia  Japan  Kuwait	Burundi  Ivory Coast  Ghana  Malawi	Albania  Bulgaria	Brazil  Cuba  Dominican Republic	France  Netherlands
2023–2025	Bangladesh  Kyrgyzstan  Maldives  Vietnam	Algeria  Morocco  South Africa  Sudan	Georgia  Romania	Chile  Costa Rica	Belgium  Germany

Images for kids

• 

  Protest at UN against China's re-election in the Human Rights Council

• 

  Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes in Yemen, June 2015. Saudi Arabia is operating without a UN mandate.

See also

In Spanish: Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas para niños

• OIC § Human rights
• Community of Democracies
• Human rights in cyberspace
• United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• UN Watch
• Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action