Finland making voluntary commitments related to its candidature to the UN Human Rights Council

Press release 93/2006
7 April, 2006

The United Nations General Assembly accepted in March the resolution about establishment of a new Human Rights Council. The first election of council members will be organised in New York on 9 May and Finland is one of the member candidates.

When coming forward as a candidate to the council, Finland has pledged to do its utmost to ensure that the Human Rights Council fulfils the expectations that the people of the world are placing on it. To demonstrate this endeavour Finland has made some voluntary commitments related to national and international implementation of human rights. These commitments concern, for instance, further ratification of human rights conventions, intensified implementation of recommendations human rights bodies have made to Finland, continued support to the UN human rights bodies, and the priority areas related to future operation of the Human Rights Council.

Also, as far as countries seeking membership in the council are concerned, it has now been stated more clearly than before that the members are expected to be committed to full respect of human rights. The EU has stated that its member states will not support as council members countries which are targeted by UN Security Council sanctions due to involvement in human rights abuses. In addition, the term on the Human Rights Council can be suspended if a state is found guilty of extensive human rights violations.

The UN General Assembly will elect 47 member states to the council. All UN member states are entitled to vote. In order to be elected to the council, each country needs the minimum of 96 votes, i.e. the absolute majority of UN member states. The seats have been divided taking into consideration geographical regional distribution so that 13 countries will be elected from the African Group of countries, 6 countries from the East European Group, 8 countries from the Latin American Group and 7 countries from the Western Group. In principle, the term of membership in the council is three years. However, as far as the first countries elected to the council are concerned, their membership terms will be staggered so that for some of them the duration of the term is one year, and for others two or three years. This way, in the future, the whole membership will not change at the same time. The terms of membership will be decided by the drawing lots after the first election.

The council will convene for its first meeting in Geneva on 19 June. The council will replace the UN Commission on Human Rights, which started its operation in 1947.

Additional information: Director Johanna Suurpää, tel. +358 9 1605 6551, and First Secretary Satu Suikkari, tel. +358 9 1605 5068, Unit for Human Rights Policy

Aide-memoire on the candidature of Finland to the UN Human Rights Council

Foreign Minister Tuomioja: The UN Human Rights Council an important step to the right direction