As the world's highest human rights body meets today in Geneva for a one-day session, Human Rights Watch warned that the commission is dominated by governments intent on blocking international scrutiny of their abusive human rights practices. These governments have initiated a review of the commission's work that could radically curtail the effectiveness of U.N. human rights monitoring, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch said that budget cuts were also taking a toll on the effectiveness of the Commission on Human Rights.
"The Commission on Human Rights is in crisis," said Joanna Weschler, U.N. representative of Human Rights Watch. "Governments that support human rights need to head off efforts to weaken the United Nations human rights system."
Human Rights Watch pointed out that any proposals to reform the working methods of the Commission should aim at enhancing of the effectiveness of those methods. Some advance proposals now being circulated in Geneva seem designed instead to weaken the role of the Commission in promoting and protecting human rights, and to limit the participation of nongovernmental organizations in the process.
Human Rights Watch called on all current members of the Commission to issue standing invitations to the Commission's many rapporteurs. States aspiring to membership on the commission, and especially its executive organ, the Bureau of the Commission, should expect that their human rights records will be the key criterion of membership.
Human Rights Watch also appealed to U.N. member states for a concerted effort at the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly this fall to exempt the Commission from the current budgetary constraints.
More Human Rights Watch analysis of this issue is available at: http://www.hrw.org/un.
