This book examines the engagement of African states with the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. This human rights mechanism is known for its pacific and non-confrontational approach to monitoring state human rights implementation. Coming at the end of the first three cycles of the UPR, the work offers a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of African states’ engagement and its potential impact. It develops a framework which comprehensively evaluates aspects of states’ UPR engagement, such as the pre-review national consultation process and implementation of UPR recommendations which, until recently, have received little attention. The book considers the potential for acculturation in engagement with the UPR and unpacks the impact of politics, regionalism, cultural relativism, rights ritualism and civil society. The work provides a useful guide for policymakers and international human rights law practitioners, as well as a valuable resource for international legal and international relations academics and researchers.

The UN Human Rights Council provides a detailed insight into this important organization. The UN was founded in the hope that lasting peace would be built on the foundations of human rights and economic and social progress. In 2006 the Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council as the principal UN body concerned with human rights. It is even possible that the council might eventually become a principal organ of the world organization. The Human Rights Council is already the subject of major public interest and controversy. The Council has been criticized for having dropped some of the protection strategies of the former commission and this book aims to present a balanced view of the council, outlining its current role, acknowledging where it has made positive contributions, highlighting the deficiencies, and identifying options for improving the body’s future work. This book is destined to become the leading text on the Human Rights Council and will be essential reading for all those concerned with the future of international relations international organizations and human rights.

This book examines the creation and formative years of the United Nations Human Rights Council which was created in 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. The book assesses the extent to which the Council has fulfilled its mandate. International law and theories of international relations relating to international organizations are used to examine the Council and its functions. Council sessions, procedures and mechanisms are analysed in depth and particular consideration is given to whether the Council has become politicised to the same extent as the Commission.

Contents: (1) Overview of the U.N. Comm. on Human Rights: The U.S. and U.N. Human Rights Efforts; The U.N. Human Rights Council and U.N. Reform; (2) Council Mandate and Respon.; Council Structure and Composition; (3) Overview of the Council¿s Work and Elections; Controversial Issues and the Sec.-General¿s Response; (4) Election Results: U.S Response; Obama Admin.; Bush Admin.; Congressional Actions re: Council Funding; (5) Congressional Issues: U.S. Funding of the Council; Effectiveness of the Council; The Council and Alleged U.S. Human Rights Abuses; Council Report on Detainees in Guantanamo Bay; Inquiry of the Council¿s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, and on Human Rights of Migrants.

This book explores how the structures of international organizations have become increasingly complex and considers why states choose to become part of networks of international organizations alongside non-state actors. While granting participation rights to non-state actors, states have been actively involved in establishing complex ties with them. International organizations, in their turn, have enhanced the sustainment of complex networks. The author argues that the involvement in networks of international organizations provides better capacities in communication. Thus, being a governmental or non-governmental entity, an actor tends to occupy the beneficial structural positions of a leader, connecting to as many actors as possible; or a broker bridging isolated subgroups within a network. Through a study of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and the respective diplomatic, institutional, and organizational networks that participate in it, he explores the most visible stakeholders, the institutional setting of the HRC, and the multilateral negotiations on the prevention of human rights violations in 2010-2019. The volume will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners interested in the international organisations, networks, foreign policy, the United Nations and the Human Rights Council.

Since its establishment the work of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has been subject to many interpretations, theories, comments or conclusions. This comprehensive book dissects every aspect of the UNHRC’s work and analyses the efficiency of, and interactions between, its mechanisms. Authored by the first Secretary of the UNHRC, this book provides unique practitioner insights into the complex decision making processes of the Council alongside the core variations from its predecessor.

This book provides a detailed analysis of South Africa’s actions on the UN Human Rights Council, examining the country’s positions on civil and political rights, economic rights and development, social groups whose rights are frequently violated, and abuses in specific countries. The most detailed and comprehensive study of any country’s record on the UN Human Rights Council to date, this book demonstrates that despite occasional support for human rights, South Africa’s overall record ranged from opposing to failing to support human rights. This is compounded by an anti-Western or ‘anti-imperial’ edge to South Africa’s positions on the UNHRC. Using South Africa as a study case of a liberal country consistently behaving illiberally, this book therefore challenges the widespread belief in international relations theory, typically found in liberal and constructivist thought, that there is an alignment of domestic political society and foreign policy values. Addressing ongoing debates since the presidency of Nelson Mandela about the place of human rights in South Africa’s foreign policy, South Africa and the UN Human Rights Council will be useful to students and scholars of international relations, human rights, international law, and African politics.

The UN Human Rights Council is the leading human rights organ of the United Nations and, ten years after it was established, it has attracted commendation as well as severe criticism. Its universal periodic review is widely recognized as a valuable process of international cooperation to advance the universal implementation of human rights. However, it has been criticized for not acting effectively and fairly in dealing with situations of shocking violations of human rights in many parts of the world. It is an international organ with the highest responsibilities to uphold universal values but, at the same time, it is a political organ of United Nations Member States, and it shows the characteristics of both a values-based body and a theatre of political drama. It is the merit of this book to present the Human Rights Council in terms of its mandates, roles and organization while seeking to remind the membership and the international community at large that the Council must be anchored in the modern human rights law of the Charter - of which the author gives a superb presentation. The book then proceeds to make the case that human rights are part of international constitutional law and this is exceedingly important at a time when universal values have come under stress from various quarters including from terrorist formations. The argument of the book is essentially that the modern human rights law of the Charter and the human rights provisions of international constitutional law must take precedence for everyone, everywhere.