New rules established for U.N. Human Rights Council

With the establishment of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a new set of rules has been adopted as a means of strengthening the U.N. body and further distancing it from its much-maligned predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, BBC News reported today.

The new rules will allow the council to regularly produce reports on the state of human rights in all U.N. member countries. The new mechanism, known as “universal periodic review”, was implemented based on “the broadest possible support”, rather than the two-thirds agreement advocated by China.

“We have all made compromises, it is not a perfect text. Negotiations never achieve a perfect text,” remarked Council President Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico.

There are currently nine countries on the council’s list of states subject to special scrutiny, including North Korea, Cambodia and Sudan.

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