United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations System Inter-Governmental body whose 47 member states are responsible for promoting and protecting  Human Rightsaround the world.

The UNHRC is the successor to the  United Nations Commission on Human Rights(UNCHR, herein CHR), and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly

The UN General Assembly established the UNHRC by adopting a resolution (A/RES/60/251) on 15 March 2006, in order to replace the previous CHR, which had been heavily criticised for allowing countries with poor human rights records to be members

The UN General Assembly elects the members who occupy the UNHRC's 47 seats.

The General Assembly takes into account the candidate States’ contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.

The term of each seat is three years, and no member may occupy a seat for more than two consecutive terms

The seats are distributed among the UN's REgional Group's as follows -

• 13 for Africa
• 13 for Asia
• 06 for Eastern Europe
• 08 for Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC)and 
• 07for the Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

The UN General Assembly, via a two-thirds majority, can suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership.

The resolution establishing the UNHRC states that "members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights"