IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 714 
Urging the replacement of the United Nations Human Rights Commission 
with a new Human Rights Council. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 8, 2006 
Ms. HARRIS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Urging the replacement of the United Nations Human Rights 
Commission with a new Human Rights Council. 
Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Commission (re-
ferred to in this Resolution as the ‘‘UNHRC’’) has lost 
its credibility as an instrument for the promotion and 
protection of human rights and has instead allowed re-
pressive regimes to shield themselves from criticism for 
their human rights violations; 
Whereas the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi 
Annan, has acknowledged that ‘‘the Commission’s declin-
ing credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the 
United Nations system’’; 
Whereas the primary deficiency of the UNHRC is directly re-
lated to its membership, as many members have serious 
deficiencies concerning commitments to democracy and 
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•HRES 714 IH 
human rights, according to the Country Reports of 
Human Rights Practices of the Department of State; 
Whereas the lack of membership criteria of the UNHRC 
hinders efforts to filter out from membership countries 
with poor human rights records; 
Whereas the UNHRC spends a disproportionate amount of 
time vilifying Israel but fails to direct such sustained crit-
icism at countries engaged in the systematic abuse of 
human rights; 
Whereas 30 percent of all country-specific resolutions of the 
UNHRC critical of human rights have been directed at 
Israel, but none against China, Syria, or Zimbabwe; 
Whereas the UNHRC has consistently failed to take decisive 
action against Member States implicated in severe viola-
tions of human rights, as evidenced by the fact that the 
UNHRC held a special sitting to criticize Israel regard-
ing the death of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, yet 
the UNHRC has only ever held five special emergency 
sessions in its history, with the last special session in 
2000, about Israel, and the UNHRC has never held a 
special session on Sudan despite the millions of deaths in 
that country over the past two decades; 
Whereas the UNHRC meets for only six weeks each year, 
providing insufficient time to review and take action 
against countries with the most flagrant human rights 
violations; 
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-members of the United Nations, such as the 
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Holy See 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 re-
placed with a new Human Rights Council; and 
Whereas efforts by the United States and other committed 
democracies to carry out the mandate of the United Na-
tions Summit Outcome Document to create a new and 
credible Human Rights Council have been strongly op-
posed by human rights abusers: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That— 
(1) the House of Representatives is strongly 
committed to the creation of a new Human Rights 
Council to replace the discredited Untied Nations 
Human Rights Commission, and the proposal for 
such Council should include assures regarding the 
integrity of its membership and provisions for a 
forceful mandate for action; 
(2) the House of Representatives urges the 
President to use the present opportunity that has 
been granted by the international recognition of the 
need to replace the current UNHRC with a new 
Human Rights Council and to refrain from sup-
porting any proposal for such a Council that would 
result in either only cosmetic changes or changes 
that would even further degrade the membership or 
mandate of the current UNHRC; 
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(3) the House of Representatives urges the 
President and the government of other Member 
States of the United Nations to continue with nego-
tiations for the creation of a Human Rights Council 
that is a credible human rights institution; and 
(4) it is the sense of the House of Representa-
tives that an acceptable proposal for a Human 
Rights Council should— 
(A) establish criteria for membership that 
would serve to exclude those countries that are 
the worst human rights abusers, and such cri-
teria should include the automatic exclusion of 
Member States that are subject to United Na-
tions Security Council sanctions; 
(B) include a provision allowing full par-
ticipations by Israel in all operations associated 
with the Human Rights Council; 
(C) set a size limit that is consistent with 
the goal of ensuring that only countries that re-
spect human rights are members of the Human 
Rights Council or other primary human rights 
body of the United Nations; 
(D) establish a human rights review re-
quirement that is tied to a mandatory outcome 
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