The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) is an advisory body to the UN dedicated to advancing human rights. It was founded 1946 by the UN ECOSOC Council. The UNCHR is composed of 53 member states and meets yearly in Geneva for its regular sessions with c. 3,000 delegates from the member states, observers and human rights organizations.
The Commission on Human Rights aims on examine, monitor and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories (known as country mechanisms or mandates) as well as on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide (known as thematic mechanisms or mandates). Supporters in most democratic countries consider the work of the UNCHR and the UN High Commissoner for Human Rights, to whom the Commission advises, as helpful for the worldwide human rights situation, yet it has critics, particularly in the United States.
These critics charge that the UNCHR permits the world's worst human rights violators to be members of the commission and argue that by so doing they undermine of the cause of human rights. They cite, as an example, the fact that in May 2003 Cuba forced the UNCHR to sever its relationship with Reporters Without Borders after the latter criticized Libya for human rights violations. [1]
