Elisa Alloul

February 9, 2023

The United Nations (UN) plays an invaluable role in bringing governments together to solve global problems to promote human rights, international peace and security, and prosperity. Nevertheless, the lack of transparency in how gross human rights abusers have been able to join UN bodies such as the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and bypass accountability is hurting the UN’s legitimacy and credibility.

So, what can the UN do to fix this problem? It can change the voting process for committee membership.

Case in point: it’s January 24, 2022, and it is Syria’s turn for a Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which assesses members of United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) human rights records. Given recent crimes against humanity carried out by the Assad regime, it would make sense to most that the government would be called out for its gross human rights violations. So, it comes as a shock that Syria was praised for its human rights practices by most of the countries that spoke during the UPR, many of them also human rights abusers.

This incident is neither an anomaly nor exclusive to the UNHRC. Take, for instance, Iran’s election as a member of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, despite its repressive treatment of women at home. How is it possible that on multiple occasions, human rights violators have gained membership on committees focused on the very rights they abuse and avoid accountability for those abuses?

At the UNHRC, countries can get elected as members by obtaining a majority of votes from the General Assembly through direct and secret ballots. In addition, member states can also get elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women via secret ballot.

The UNHRC was formed to replace the Commission for Human Rights, primarily due to concerns with the prevalence of human rights violators as members, which undermined its credibility. As a result, the UPR and changes to membership requirements were added to attempt to correct the problems undermining the transparency and legitimacy of the commission. An integral aspect of the UPR is allowing countries to submit a report discussing their human rights practices for review. However, it is unclear how these reports are determined to be factual. Criteria regarding which countries can participate as members were also added. For example, when voting to elect a new member to the UNHRC, the General Assembly is advised to account for the candidate’s record of protecting and promoting human rights and commitment to do so going forward.

While some of these mechanisms have beneficial aspects, like maintaining diplomatic peace and including human rights violators in an effort to encourage them to improve, without more transparent guidelines, these mechanisms also give human rights abusers a free pass.

How is it possible that on multiple occasions, human rights violators have gained membership on committees focused on the very rights they abuse and avoid accountability for those abuses?

To maintain diplomatic peace, countries may prefer to vote for states to join UN bodies through secret ballot. However, this method also allows countries to use diplomatic channels to obtain votes for political reasons, ultimately leading to human rights abusers joining organizations focused on those rights, undermining their objectives.

By allowing countries to prepare their own reports for the UPR, they are actively participating in evaluating and potentially bettering their own human rights practices. But in doing so, governments can deny wrongdoing and avoid accountability.

Guidelines for considering members of the UNHRC are entirely subjective, which makes them unclear in determining what it means to protect and promote human rights, as it is not stipulated which resolutions, documents, treaties, or definitions should be used to make such determinations.

The UN could increase the transparency, legitimacy, and effectiveness of its objectives by: doing away with secret ballot voting; ending the ability of countries to provide their own reports for the UPR; providing clear definitions of what protecting human rights means; and, being clear about how a country can fulfill those criteria. In doing so, the UN can prevent human rights abusers from hiding behind the lack of transparent mechanisms to deny wrongdoing and shield themselves from accountability.

Given Canada’s role as a founding member of the UN and its traditional role as peacekeeper in the international sphere, it would be a natural progression for Canada to lead efforts to promote reform at the UN. Canada could lead the charge for the UN to implement transparent, explicit, and unbiased mechanisms to correct threats to its legitimacy, credibility, and ability to effectively promote human rights, international peace and security, and prosperity worldwide.

Elisa Alloul is an MPP Candidate at the Max Bell School of Public Policy,, with prior experience in the non-profit field, the Ontario public service, and the Parliament of Canada. Elisa is especially interested in global and educational policy.