The Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, Stephen Crabb MP, has warned that the coming year will be vital for the new UN Human Rights Council to demonstrate that it can tackle human rights abuses more effectively than its predecessor body.

peaking at the end of the first year of the Council’s work, Mr Crabb said

“So far the signals are less than encouraging. Those of us who had hoped that the Council would mark a significant break with the bad old ways of the UN Human Rights Commission have been disappointed. But hopefully, now that the Council has finally reached an agreement on the way it is going to work, we will start to see a real effort to tackle the worst human rights abuses.”

19 June marked the end of the first year of the UN Human Rights Council. It was a day which saw theagreement, at the last moment, of a package of institutional measures.

The deal was struck after 14 hours of hard negotiations during which China threatened to block the agreement regarding the procedures leading to the adoption of resolutions criticising countries over their human rights records. China tried to commit the Council to a two-third majority requirement for an expert to be appointed to make special investigations of alleged human rights abuses.  The compromise reached states that these resolutions need to enjoy ‘the broadest possible support’.

Commenting on this outcome, Stephen Crabb said:

“This was a necessary compromise in order to achieve some progress. However, the weaknesses of this compromise will be felt at every step of the way. The final text leaves room for wide interpretation and could make the working of the Council subject to even more political manoeuvring.”

“China once again missed an opportunity to demonstrate global leadership on human rights and gave the appearance of seeking to erect obstacles to effective international action against abuses.”

However, the deal also introduced the ‘universal periodic review’ which stipulates that all member states need to have their rights records scrutinised regularly although it is unclear what this will amount to in practice.

After a year dedicated mostly to institutional building, the work of the Council is likely to start concentrating on the actual human rights abuses. It is expected that the Council will adopt resolutions proposed in this session on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Darfur. However, the Council seems to continue to overlook some appalling human rights abuses in countries such as Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq and Sri Lanka.

The compromise deal also saw the removal of Belarus and Cuba from a list of countries under special investigation.

The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission welcomed the decision to look more closely at Darfur, but underlined the need not to lose attention of other hot spots which require the immediate action of the international community.

On 22 May, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission held a hearing on the reform of the UN Human Rights Council. The Commission took evidence from Tom Porteous, Director of Human Rights Watch, Joe Loconte, of the Ethics and Public Policy Centre, leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, and Lord Hannay of Chiswick, Chair of the United Nations Association UK. A report including the evidence taken at this hearing and policy recommendations will be published by the Commission later in the year.