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Summary

On March 15, 2006, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution replacing the Commission on Human Rights with a new Human Rights Council (the Council). The U.N. Secretariat and some governments, including the United States, view the establishment of the Council as a key component of comprehensive U.N. reform. The Council was designed to be an improvement over the Commission, which was widely criticized for the composition of its membership when perceived human rights abusers were elected as members. The General Assembly resolution creating the Council, among other things, increased the number of meetings per year and introduced a "universal periodic review" process to assess each member state's fulfillment of its human rights obligations. One hundred seventy countries voted in favor of the resolution to create the Council. The United States, under the George W. Bush Administration, was one of four countries to vote against the resolution. The Bush Administration maintained that the Council structure was no better than the Commission and that it lacked mechanisms for "maintaining credible membership." It initially stated that it would fund and support the work of the Council. During the Council's first two years, however, the Administration expressed concern with the Council's focus on Israel and lack of attention to other human rights situations. In April 2008, the Bush Administration announced that the United States would withhold a portion of its contributions to the 2008 U.N. regular budget equivalent to the U.S. share of the Human Rights Council budget. In June 2008, it further announced that the United States would engage with the Council "only in matters of deep national interest." On February 27, 2009, the Barack Obama Administration announced that it would participate as an observer in the 10th regular session of the Human Rights Council (held from March 2 to 27, 2009). The Administration stated that it "furthers our [the United States'] interest if we are part of the conversation and present at the Council's proceedings." At the same time, however, the Obama Administration stated that the Council's trajectory was "disturbing," particularly its "repeated and unbalanced" criticisms of Israel. The United States has not run for a seat in any of the three Council elections and is currently a Council observer with no voting rights. Since its establishment, the Council has held 10 regular sessions and 10 special sessions. The regular sessions addressed a combination of specific human rights abuses and procedural and structural issues. Five of the 10 special sessions addressed the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Lebanon. Congress maintains an ongoing interest in the credibility and effectiveness of the Council in the context of both human rights and broader U.N. reform. In Division J, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriation Act, 2008, of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-161), for example, Congress prohibits U.S. contributions to support the Human Rights Council unless (1) the Secretary of State certifies to the Committees on Appropriations that funding the Council is "in the national interest of the United States" or (2) the United States is a member of the Council. Due to the nature of U.N. budget mechanisms, withholding Council funds would be a largely symbolic act and may have little or no effect on the Council's operational work. This report will be updated as events warrant.

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