III 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 387 

Recognizing the need to replace the United Nations Human Rights 

Commission with a new Human Rights Council. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 2, 2006 

Mr. COLEMAN (for himself, Mr. SMITH, Mr. VOINOVICH, Mr. COBURN, and 

Mr. KYL) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the need to replace the United Nations Human 

Rights Commission with a new Human Rights Council. 

Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Commission 

(hereinafter ‘‘UNHRC’’) has lost its credibility as an instrument for the promotion or protection of human 

rights, instead allowing repressive regimes to shield themselves from criticism for their human rights violations; 

Whereas Secretary-General Kofi Annan has also acknowledged that, ‘‘the Commission’s declining credibility has 

cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations 

system’’; 

Whereas the primary deficiency of the Human Rights Commission is directly related to its membership, where 6 of 

the 53 current members, namely China, Cuba, Eritrea, 


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Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, are listed as the 

worst human-rights abusers by Freedom House, and 

many other members have serious deficiencies concerning 

commitments to democracy and human rights according 

to the Department of State Country Reports on Human 

Rights Practices; 

Whereas the lack of membership criteria of the UNHRC, 

particularly when combined with the relatively large 

membership of 53 countries, hinders efforts to filter out 

countries with poor human rights records from membership; 

Whereas the UNHRC spends a disproportionate amount of 

time vilifying Israel, its primary target for criticism, but 

fails to direct such sustained criticism at states engaged 

in the systematic abuse of human rights, with 30 percent 

of all country-specific resolutions critical of human rights 

records over the history of the UNHRC have been directed at Israel alone, while there has never been a single 

such resolution on China, Syria, or Zimbabwe; 

Whereas the UNHRC has consistently failed to take decisive 

action against member states implicated in the massive 

violation of human rights, which is evidenced by the fact 

that the UNHRC has never held a special emergency session on Sudan despite millions of deaths over 2 decades 

in Sudan, but the UNHRC has held a special sitting to 

criticize Israel on the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the 

leader of Hamas; 

Whereas the UNHRC only meets for 6 weeks each year, providing the UNHRC with insufficient time to review and 

take action against the most flagrant human rights violators; 


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Whereas Israel has been consistently discriminated against by 

being denied full participatory rights in regional group 

meetings associated with the operation of the UNHRC, 

while non-United Nations members such as the Holy See 

(WEOG) and the Palestinian observer participate in 

these meetings; 

Whereas the overwhelming failures of the UNHRC led to an 

international consensus that it must be abolished and replaced with a new Human Rights Council, and the 

United Nations Summit Outcome Document, signed by 

all United Nations member states in September 2005, 

stated that ‘‘Pursuant to our commitment to further 

strengthen the United Nations human rights machinery, 

we resolve to create a Human Rights Council. The Council will be responsible for 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. The Council should address situations 

of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations and make recommendations thereon. It 

should also promote effective coordination and the 

mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations system.’’; and 

Whereas efforts by the United States and other committed 

democracies to carry out the mandate of the Summit 

Document to create a new credible Human Rights Council have been strongly opposed by human rights abusers 

at the United Nations: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That— 

2 (1) the United States remains strongly com3 mitted to the creation of a new Human Rights 


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1 Council to replace the discredited United Nations 

2 Human Rights Commission (hereinafter 

3 ‘‘UNHRC’’), and the proposal for such a Council 

4 should work to assure the integrity of its member5 ship as well as provide a strong mandate for action; 

6 (2) the Senate urges the President to use the 

7 present opportunity that has been generated by the 

8 international recognition of the need to replace the 

9 current UNHRC, and to refrain from supporting 

10 any proposal for a Human Rights Council that 

11 would result either in only cosmetic changes or 

12 changes that would even further degrade the mem13 bership and mandate of the current UNHRC; 

14 (3) the Senate urges the President and the gov15 ernments of other member countries of the United 

16 Nations to continue with negotiations for the cre17 ation of a Human Rights Council that is a credible 

18 human rights institution; and 

19 (4) it is the sense of the Senate that an accept20 able proposal for a credible Human Rights Council 

21 would— 

22 (A) establish criteria for membership that 

23 would serve to exclude the worst human rights 

24 abusers, and such criteria would include, but 

25 should not be limited to, the automatic excluVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:16 Mar 03, 2006 Jkt 049196 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR387.IS SR387

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1 sion of member countries that are subject to 

2 Security Council sanctions; 

3 (B) include a provision allowing full par4 ticipation by Israel in all operations associated 

5 with the Council; 

6 (C) set a size limit that is consistent with 

7 the goal of ensuring that only countries that re8 spect human rights are members of the primary 

9 human rights body of the United Nations; 

10 (D) establish a human rights review re11 quirement that is tied to a mandatory outcome 

12 and takes place prior to elections for member13 ship; 

14 (E) exclude any provision that prevents the 

15 consecutive election of member countries to the 

16 Council; and 

17 (F) utilize a formula for the distribution of 

18 membership among United Nations member 

19 countries that gives priority to countries that 

20 respect human rights, while also giving consid21 eration to geographical distribution, the rep22 resentation of different forms of civilization, 

23 and the principal legal systems. 

Æ 


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