​Study Guide

Committee Description

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body composed of 47 temporarily-elected member states. It was created on March 15th, 2006, by the United Nations General Assembly to ensure the promotion, acceptance and protection of human rights around the world. The Human Rights Council abides to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an international standard and international law regarding 80 of the natural born entitlements belonging to humans, and addresses specific articles of the document when discussing situations of human rights violations around the globe. One year after its creation, the committee adopted an “Institution Building Package” which established a well rounded mechanism of evaluating the human rights situation in all of the UN Member states and created proper committee procedure. The representatives of the member states debate thematic human rights issues throughout each year at the UN office in Geneva and respond to human rights abuses or emergencies. In addition to the “Advisory Committee” that works to provide expertise and advice to the council, and the “Complaint Procedure” where individual actors report the human rights violations being committed around the world, the UNHRC requires the accounts of individuals or organizations to bring such violations forward. Special procedures of the committee include state visits by human rights agents or commissioners, acting on particular cases, and conducting thematic studies. The Council can also establish international commissions of inquiry or launch investigations as a response to human rights allegations, to bring transparency to a population and expose violators of human rights. 

The committee is essential for providing assistance to governments on how to better implement human rights in their own societies, and works jointly with the UN’s bodies of justice, such as the ICC and ICJ, to bring perpetrators of human rights violations under international law. The committee has also shifted the way people and governments identify, highlight and develop responses to human rights crises, with the goal of researching, educating and advocating for the guarantee of the universal rights in the world.
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Delegation List: 
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​Classroom Code

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​Topics

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Leticia Cotecchia
Head Chair

Cecília Nakao
Chair

Maria Eduarda Ferreira
Chair

Meet the Chairs