UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Functional commission of the Economic and Social Council

59th Session, 2003 | 60th Session, 2004 | Special Rapporteurs on women's rights

| 62nd Session 2006 |

Background

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, comprised of 53 States, meets each year in regular session in March/April for six weeks in Geneva, Switzerland. Over 3,000 delegates from member and observer States and from non-governmental organizations participate. During its regular annual session, the Commission adopts around a hundred resolutions, decisions and Chairperson's statements on matters of relevance to individuals in all regions and circumstances.

The main themes addressed by the Commission are: the right to self-determination; racism; the right to development; the question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine; the question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world; economic, social and cultural rights; civil and political rights, including the questions of torture and detention, disappearances and summary executions, freedom of expression, the independence of the judiciary, impunity and religious intolerance; the human rights of women, children, migrant workers, minorities and displaced persons; indigenous issues; the promotion and protection of human rights, including the work of the Sub-Commission, treaty bodies, and national institutions; and advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights.

It is assisted in this work by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, by a number of working groups and by a network of individual experts, representatives and rapporteurs charged with reporting to it on specific issues. Click here for a list of these issues and the experts reporting to the Commission. The mandates given to Commission on Human Rights procedures and mechanisms are either to examine, monitor and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories (known as country mechanisms or mandates - click here for a list of country mandates and the experts reporting to the Commission) or on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide (known as thematic mechanisms or mandates). These procedures and mechanisms are collectively referred to as the Special Procedures of the Commission on Human Rights.

Special edition of Human Rights Quarterly on Women's Human Rights iiiiii
Building on Achievements: Women's Human Rights 5 years After Beijing

Vienna World Conference on Human Rights: In 1993, the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights devoted particular attention to the question of gender inequality in the full enjoyment of human rights. The Conference clearly acknowledged that women's rights are human rights and that the human rights of women are an inalienable part of universal human rights and form an integral part of the human rights activities of the United Nations, including the promotion of all human rights instruments relating, directly or indirectly, to women.

Beijing Platform for Action: In 1995 the Beijing Platform for Action stated: Unless the human rights of women, as defined by international human rights instruments, are fully recognized and effectively protected, applied, implemented and enforced in national law as well as in national practice in family, civil, penal, labour and commercial codes and administrative rules and regulations, they will exist in name only.

International Instruments on the Rights of Women

Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
sections specifically referring to armed conflict

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
sections specifically referring to armed conflict

Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
sections specifically referring to armed conflict

Convention on the Political Rights of Women

Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict
sections specifically referring to armed conflict

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Special Rapporteurs

UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking, Ms. Sigma Huda
(Bangladesh)

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Dr. Yakin Erturk
(Turkey)
Contact:
Email: erturk@metu.edu.tr
or
Office of the High Commissionner on Human Rights, Geneva
Christina Saunders
Email: csaunders@ohchr.org

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
In 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/251 establishing the Human Rights Council to replace the Commission on Human Rights.