Switzerland welcomes the creation of the Human Rights Council

Berne, 15.03.2006 - Switzerland welcomes the creation of the Human Rights Council by the United Nations General Assembly. After several months of intense negotiations in New York, the President of the UN General Assembly, Sweden’s Jan Eliasson has successfully submitted the draft resolution to set up the new body to the UN Member States. From 19 June 2006, the new body will replace the Commission for Human Rights and will sit in Geneva.

From the beginning, Switzerland has played an active part in creating this new United Nations body. Even though it does not reflect all our country’s original demands, the resolution now adopted is a good compromise and will strengthen the UN system for promoting and protecting human rights.

Switzerland has been particularly committed to the idea of the new body having its headquarters in Geneva, a city of humanitarian traditions, seat of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and many major international NGOs. Since 1947, Geneva has hosted the meetings of the Commission for Human Rights, but this is the first time since the creation of the United Nations that one of its major bodies has been permanently established in our country.

Switzerland will very soon be presenting its candidature for a seat on the Human Rights Council. The new members will be elected by the General Assembly in New York on 9 May 2006. As required by the Resolution, Switzerland will formulate voluntary commitments in respect of human rights.

The main factors distinguishing the Council from the Commission are as follows:

the Council will be a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and so will have a higher institutional status;
it will hold a minimum of three sessions lasting at least ten weeks each year, which should strengthen dialogue and cooperation, and may meet in special session on the approval of one-third of its members;
it will have a periodic universal evaluation mechanism, whereby the compliance of all Member States in human rights matters will be evaluated;
it will be composed of 47 members (the Commission had 53) elected by the General Assembly on an absolute majority basis for a period of three years; it will not be possible for members to be re-elected after two successive mandates;
to ensure the credibility of the new body, candidates for seats on the Council are invited to formulate voluntary commitments in respect of human rights;
in the event of serious and systematic violations of human rights, a member may be suspended by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.

In the months ahead, our country will continue to work hard and produce material for reflection in preparation for the first sessions of the Council. These efforts will be devoted to drawing up the Council’s agenda and working methods, as well as devising a mechanism for periodically reviewing the human rights situation in all the UN’s Member States.

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