The UN Charter and the UN human rights machinery

1. Human rights in the Charter

The Charter was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945. It does not list rights, but it makes their promotion a purpose of the Organisation.

• Preamble. The peoples of the United Nations are determined “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”.
• Article 1(3). A purpose of the UN is to achieve international co-operation “in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion”.
• Article 13(1)(b). The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for assisting in the realisation of human rights.
• Article 55(c). The UN shall promote “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all”.
• Article 56. All members pledge themselves to take joint and separate action in co-operation with the Organisation for the achievement of the purposes in Article 55. This pledge is the nearest the Charter comes to a binding obligation.
• Article 62(2). ECOSOC may make recommendations for promoting respect for human rights.
• Article 68. ECOSOC shall set up commissions for the promotion of human rights. Under this Article it created the Commission on Human Rights (1946) and the Commission on the Status of Women (1946).
• Article 76(c). An objective of the trusteeship system is to encourage respect for human rights.
• Article 71. ECOSOC may consult non-governmental organisations, the basis of NGO consultative status.

The limit: Article 2(7). Nothing in the Charter authorises the UN to intervene in matters essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state. Early on, states argued that human rights were such matters. Practice has rejected that argument: the General Assembly’s action against apartheid in South Africa, and the Vienna Declaration of 1993 (paragraph 4), which calls the promotion and protection of human rights a legitimate concern of the international community, show that serious violations are no longer purely domestic.

2. The Commission on Human Rights (1946–2006)

The Commission, a body of state representatives under ECOSOC, drafted the UDHR (1948) and the two Covenants (1966). From 1967 it could examine situations of gross violations (ECOSOC resolution 1235), and from 1970 it had a confidential complaints procedure (ECOSOC resolution 1503). It was criticised for politicisation, since states with poor records sat on it and shielded each other, and it was replaced in 2006.

3. The Human Rights Council

The Council was created by General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly (not of ECOSOC).

• Membership. 47 states, elected directly and individually by secret ballot by a majority of the members of the General Assembly, with seats distributed among regional groups. Members serve three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms.
• Standards for members. Members must uphold the highest standards and are themselves reviewed. The General Assembly may, by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting, suspend a member that commits gross and systematic violations. Libya was suspended in 2011 and Russia in 2022.
• Sessions. At least three sessions a year, totalling not less than ten weeks, in Geneva; special sessions may be called on the request of one-third of the members.

Mechanisms of the Council.

• Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The new feature of 2006. Every UN member state, without exception, has its human rights record reviewed by its peers in a cycle of about four and a half years. The review rests on the state’s own report, a compilation of UN information and a summary of submissions by NHRIs and NGOs. Other states make recommendations, which the state under review accepts or notes, and its implementation is examined in the next cycle. India has been reviewed in every cycle since 2008.
• Special procedures. Independent experts (Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups) with thematic mandates (torture, freedom of expression, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances) or country mandates. They visit countries, act on individual cases by sending communications to governments, and report to the Council.
• Complaint procedure. Established by Council resolution 5/1 (2007) as the successor to the 1503 procedure, for consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations. It is confidential.
• Advisory Committee of 18 experts, acting as the Council’s think tank.

4. The High Commissioner for Human Rights

Following the Vienna World Conference, General Assembly resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993 created the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the principal UN official with responsibility for human rights, of the rank of Under-Secretary-General, appointed by the Secretary-General with the approval of the General Assembly. The Office (OHCHR) in Geneva services the Council, the special procedures and the treaty bodies, and runs field offices. The same session adopted the Paris Principles (resolution 48/134) on national human rights institutions, which are the standard against which India’s NHRC is judged.

5. The treaty bodies

There are nine core human rights treaties. Each creates a committee of independent experts that examines periodic reports of states parties, issues concluding observations and general comments, and, where the state has accepted it, considers individual complaints.

• ICERD, 1965 — Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
• ICCPR, 1966 — Human Rights Committee.
• ICESCR, 1966 — Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (created by ECOSOC in 1985).
• CEDAW, 1979 — Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
• CAT, 1984 — Committee against Torture; and, under the Optional Protocol of 2002, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, which visits places of detention.
• CRC, 1989 — Committee on the Rights of the Child.
• Migrant Workers Convention, 1990 — Committee on Migrant Workers.
• CRPD, 2006 — Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006 — Committee on Enforced Disappearances.

That makes ten treaty bodies for nine treaties, counting the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture.

The Convention against Torture deserves a sentence of its own because India has signed it (1997) but not ratified it. Article 1 defines torture as the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, for purposes such as obtaining information or a confession, punishment or intimidation, by or with the consent of a public official. Article 2(2) says no exceptional circumstance whatever, including war or public emergency, may justify torture. Article 3 forbids returning a person to a state where he would be in danger of torture (non-refoulement); Article 15 excludes statements made under torture as evidence. The Law Commission in its 273rd Report (2017) recommended ratification and a law against torture; neither has followed. The Supreme Court’s guidelines on arrest in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal, 1996 INSC 1508, (1997) 1 SCC 416, fill part of the gap.

6. Other UN organs

The Security Council acts where violations threaten international peace and security: sanctions against Southern Rhodesia and South Africa, and the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (1993) and Rwanda (1994). The International Court of Justice decides disputes between states, including under the Genocide Convention. The specialised agencies (ILO, UNESCO, WHO) and funds such as UNICEF and UNHCR work in their own fields.

How this is examined

January 2026 set “United Nations Charter and human rights” as a 6-mark note; June 2025 and August 2024 set “Human Rights Council”. For the Charter note, list the Articles in section 1 and end with Article 2(7). For the Council note, give resolution 60/251, composition, suspension, and the UPR and special procedures. A 10-mark question on UN machinery wants both the Charter-based and treaty-based bodies, with the distinction stated at the start.