CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Pál, Norbert |
|---|---|
| Title | Fulfilling states' expectations in the Human Rights Council |
| Summary | The United Nations Human Rights Council was established in 2006 to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. This paper sets out to evaluate the performance of the Council since its inception. The paper provides a critical appraisal of the Council based on the goals this new body was supposed to implement. This is in contrast with the existing academic literature, which seem to take as granted that there is progress in the field of human rights and that the Council has to fulfill some objective standards of human rights. The expectation of states is identified by looking at the constitutive document of the Human Rights Council (resolution 60/251 of the United Nations General Assembly) and at the official record of the explanation of votes taking place after the adoption of the resolution. This is followed by an evaluation of the Council based on its resolutions, NGO reports and academic studies. The result is that the Council is fulfilling the states’ expectations, however, this is not to say that the Council overcame the criticisms of its predecessor, rather than that the expectations of states were low. Finally, the paper identifies the root of the criticism formulated in the doctrine and finds that the Council is built on a strong contradiction. It is formulated in terms of human rights and universality, whereas it functions as a political organ where it is accepted that all kinds of political deals will be made. |
| Supervisor | Kratochwil, Friedrich |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/pal_norbert.pdf |
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