Chronology: The Human Rights Council – elections, sessions and important developments

By Thomas Colerick, 23 September 2011

As the Center for UN Reform Education once again will be covering the Human Rights Council more systematically, this chronology of the Council is provided. It includes elections, selected sessions and major developments and takes the reader from the Council’s birth in 2006 to today where the Council is currently holding its 18th Session in Geneva, Switzerland.

15 March 2006 – The General Assembly adopts, by a vote of 170 in favor, 3 abstentions and 4 against, resolution 60/251 setting up the Human Rights Council. The date of the first session is set for 19 June 2006, to be preceded by the abolition of the Human Rights Commission on 16 June 2006.

9 May 2006 – The Assembly elects the first 47 members of the Council.1

19-30 June 2006 – The Council holds its inaugural session in Geneva.

17 May 2007 – The Assembly holds the 2nd election of members to the Council electing Madagascar, South Africa, Angola, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Qatar, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Netherlands and Italy to become members.2

21 May 2008 – The Assembly holds the 3rd election of members to the Council electing Zambia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Japan, Bahrain, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Slovakia, Ukraine, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, France and United Kingdom.

18 June 2008 – The Council adopts the institution-building package (Council resolution 5/1) including the system of expert advice, the new complaint procedure, the special procedures and the Universal periodic review.

12 May 2009 – The Assembly holds the 4th election of members to the Council electing Senegal, Mauritius, Nigeria, Cameron, Djibouti, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, China, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation, Hungary, Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba, Norway, Belgium and United States of America.
13 May 2010 - The Assembly holds the 5th election of members to the Council electing Angola, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Uganda, Malaysia, Maldives, Qatar, Thailand, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Spain and Switzerland.

11 May 2011 – The Assembly holds the 6th election of members to the Council electing Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Congo, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Philippines, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Czech Republic, Romania, Austria and Italy.

August 2011 – The Council completes its 17th Special Session,3 in this case on the situation of Human Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic.

September 2011 – The Council opens its 18th Regular Session.

  • 1. For a complete list of members see the 2006 annual report of the Council
  • 2. In accordance with paragraph 7 of General Assembly resolution 60/251 “the Council shall consist of forty-seven Member States, which shall be elected directly and individually by secret ballot by the majority of the members of the General Assembly; the membership shall be based on equitable geographical distribution, and seats shall be distributed as follows among regional groups: Group of African States, 13; Group of Asian States, 13; Group of Eastern European States, 6; Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, 8; and Group of Western European and other States, 7; the members of the Council shall serve for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms.”
  • 3. For the exact content of each Special Session go to http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil

Center for UN Reform Education • P.O. Box 3195 • New York, NY 10163-3195, USA •

Error | CenterforUNReform

Error message

  • Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home3/centerf3/public_html/old_drupal_site/includes/common.inc:2701) in drupal_send_headers() (line 1217 of /home3/centerf3/public_html/old_drupal_site/includes/bootstrap.inc).
  • PDOException: SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'centerf3_drupal.watchdog' doesn't exist: INSERT INTO {watchdog} (uid, type, message, variables, severity, link, location, referer, hostname, timestamp) VALUES (:db_insert_placeholder_0, :db_insert_placeholder_1, :db_insert_placeholder_2, :db_insert_placeholder_3, :db_insert_placeholder_4, :db_insert_placeholder_5, :db_insert_placeholder_6, :db_insert_placeholder_7, :db_insert_placeholder_8, :db_insert_placeholder_9); Array ( [:db_insert_placeholder_0] => 0 [:db_insert_placeholder_1] => cron [:db_insert_placeholder_2] => %type: !message in %function (line %line of %file). [:db_insert_placeholder_3] => a:6:{s:5:"%type";s:12:"PDOException";s:8:"!message";s:202:"SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'centerf3_drupal.watchdog' doesn't exist: SELECT w.wid AS wid FROM {watchdog} w ORDER BY wid DESC LIMIT 1 OFFSET 999; Array ( ) ";s:9:"%function";s:12:"dblog_cron()";s:5:"%file";s:70:"/home3/centerf3/public_html/old_drupal_site/modules/dblog/dblog.module";s:5:"%line";i:113;s:14:"severity_level";i:3;} [:db_insert_placeholder_4] => 3 [:db_insert_placeholder_5] => [:db_insert_placeholder_6] => https://old.centerforunreform.org/?q=node%2F449 [:db_insert_placeholder_7] => [:db_insert_placeholder_8] => 3.135.247.17 [:db_insert_placeholder_9] => 1732306782 ) in dblog_watchdog() (line 160 of /home3/centerf3/public_html/old_drupal_site/modules/dblog/dblog.module).

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.