Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 6 A Critical Appraisal of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee

Subject(s):

Human rights

This chapter assesses the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, which was created under the Council’s Institution-building resolution with the aim of providing expert advice to the Council. Indeed, the idea behind its creation was that this body would analyse issues and problems at the Council’s request, provide expert advice, and make recommendations to the Council. The Committee’s focus is mainly on studies and research-based advice and it is designed to be implementation-oriented. As a result, its margin of manoeuvre and scope of advice are limited to themes pertaining to the Council’s mandate and choice. Since its inception, the Committee has developed a practice of suggesting topics to the Human Rights Council by way of research proposals. The Council has acted upon some of the themes included in these proposals by requesting the Committee to conduct relevant studies.