The United Nations Human Rights Machinery: Too Big to Fail? An Examination of the Flaws of the Machinery and Proposals from a Third World Scholar’s Perspective

Abstract

“[W]hen the fundamental principles of human rights are not protected, the centre of our institution no longer holds.” These are the reverberating words of the outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein. He leaves his office in a climate of global retreat on human rights. While the United Nations human rights machinery is often praised as one of the strongest developments within the United Nations, it is questionable if the human rights machinery has indeed made any significant impact outside of the institution. The paper will consider these questions: Did the politicisation of the machinery, hinder the impact on respective domestic human rights infrastructures? Is international human rights law invaded by postcolonial policies? To answer these questions, the author will use the case study of Sri Lanka as a research vehicle. The hypothesis is that the United Nations human rights machinery’s failure in Sri Lanka has impacted the United Nations more as an organisation as such—much more than it had an impact on Sri Lanka.