United Nations: New, Improved Human Rights Council

On March 15, in a landmark step toward ensuring that abusive governments are held accountable for human rights violations, the United Nations General Assembly voted by an overwhelming majority to create the Human Rights Council, which will replace the discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Human Rights Watch played a pioneering role in advocating to replace the now-defunct U.N. Commission, which had a history of electing abusive governments as members and failing to criticize the actions of serious human rights offenders like Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe. In the lead-up to Council membership elections on May 9, we will push governments to design a universal review procedure that will thoroughly and fairly examine the human rights records of all countries.