UN Opens Inaugural Session for Human Rights Council

Yesterday, the United Nations Human Rights Council opened its inaugural session in Geneva. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the new 47-member body to break with its much maligned predecessor, the U.N. Human Rights Commission:

[T]he Council’s work must mark a clean break from the past. That must be apparent in the way you develop and apply the universal periodic review mechanism; in your willingness to confront hard issues and engage in difficult discussions, where these are necessary to remedy — or, even better, to prevent — human rights violations; and in your readiness to make good use of your ability to meet more frequently than the Commission did, and to call special sessions.

What must be apparent, above all, is a change in culture — I repeat — a change in culture. In place of the culture of confrontation and distrust, which pervaded the Commission in its final years, we must see a culture of cooperation and commitment, inspired by mature leadership, which cannot rest only on the shoulders of your President, but must be collective. The General Assembly has given you a good set of rules to start from, but ultimately your success or failure will be determined by your working methods, and by the aspirations and attitudes that inform them.

A full text of the Secretary General’s remarks can be accessed here. The Council will meet through June 30, occupying itself primarily with organizing its future operations. At this point, only time will tell whether the changes in membership selection, the increased frequency of meetings, and more transparent review mechansims will produce a Human Rights Council capable of meeting the U.N. General Assembly’s vision of an organ capable of “promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner.”