THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL AND THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS
Keywords:
United Nations, Human Rights Council, Security Council, Chapter VII, International Criminal Court, Commission of Inquiry, veto, accountability.Abstract
This paper examines the legal and institutional relationship between the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Security Council, two bodies that address overlapping subject matter through fundamentally different legal instruments. Drawing on the 2011 Libyan crisis and the Syrian Arab Republic's Commission of Inquiry, the author analyzes how the Council's fact-finding and monitoring outputs interact with the Security Council's exclusive power to adopt binding measures under Chapter VII of the Charter, and assesses recent General Assembly initiatives aimed at narrowing the resulting accountability gap.
References
1. UN General Assembly, Resolution 60/251, “Human Rights Council,” UN Doc. A/RES/60/251, 15 March 2006; Charter of the United Nations, Arts. 24, 25, 27(3).
2. Charter of the United Nations, Chapter VII, Arts. 39–42.
3. UN Security Council, Resolution 1970 (2011), UN Doc. S/RES/1970, 26 February 2011.
4. UN General Assembly, Resolution 65/265, “Suspension of the rights of membership of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in the Human Rights Council,” 1 March 2011.
5. OHCHR, “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic: Mandate,” 2026.
6. Human Rights Watch, “UN Security Council: Vetoes Betray Syrian Victims,” 22 May 2014.
7. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Art. 13(b); International Criminal Court, “Libya,” situation overview.
8. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, “References on the need for veto restraint by the UN Security Council in mass atrocity situations”; UN General Assembly, Resolution 76/262, “Standing mandate for a General Assembly debate when a veto is cast in the Security Council,” 26 April 2022.
