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United Nations Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations. This is a subsidiary body within the United Nations General Assembly. Though the United Nations headquarters are in New York City, the United Nations Human Rights Council is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The United Nations Human Rights Council main objective is "to make recommendations to the General Assembly about situations in which human rights are violated." This council does not have any authority or power over situations; they can solely make recommendations to the General Assembly which in turn has no authority except to advise the Security Council. The General Assembly established the United Nations Human Rights on March 15, 2006 and works very closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is elected by the members of the United Nations General Assembly. There are forty-seven seats and each seat has a three year term, with a two consecutive term limit. The seats in the United Nations Human Rights Council are distributed among the United Nations' regional groups. The distribution for the United Nations Human Rights Council is as follows: 13 for Africa, 13 for Asia, 6 for Eastern Europe, 8 for Latin America/ Caribbean, and 7 for the Western European and Others group. The motto for the United Nations Human Rights Council is that "members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights." The United Nations General Assembly may also by a two-thirds vote suspend the rights and privileges of a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council if that member has persistently committed gross and continual violation of human rights.

Within the United Nations Human Rights Council, there are several subsidiary bodies and working groups. Its main subsidiary is the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which is comprised of 26 elected human rights experts whose mandate was to conduct studies on discriminatory practices and make recommendations to ensure that racial, national, religious, and linguistic minorities are protected by law. This Commission is then further divided into 8 working groups which are: Working Group on Administration of Justice, Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Working Group in Indigenous Populations, Working Group on Minorities, The Social Forum, Working Group on Transnational Corporations, and the Working Group on Terrorism.

While the United Nations Human Rights Council does not have any authority or power in the international community, they do have a tremendous amount of influence. They are the primary source of information regarding human rights and the first point of contact for the United Nations General Assembly therefore the studies and the expertise of the United Nations Human Rights Council is not to be underestimated.