Country-Related and Thematic Developments at the 1988 Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Abstract

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights is the principal and most important political organ of the United Nations concerned principally with human rights.'; The Commission meets for six weeks every year in February and March. This year, for example, it met from 1 February through 11 March 1988.2 The Commission is comprised of forty-three government representatives who are elected by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Economic and Social Council is, in turn, a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly. When the UN Charter was written in 1945, the subject of human rights was so important that the Charter in Article 68 specifically prescribes that a Commission on Human Rights should be established. The forty-three governments which are members of the Commission on Human Rights differ significantly, from countries which are known for their respect for human rights to countries which have very different reputations. It is remarkable, therefore, that the Commission has historically been the author of the principal norm-setting instruments of human rights. The Commission in its earliest days under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,3 which provides the most widely