What are the problems with the Commission on Human Rights that pushed creation of a new CHR?
The Commission on Human Rights had, after many years of poor performance, lost any credibility as an effective force for advancing agreed international human rights standards. Its membership included many of the worst violators of human rights, who flocked to the Commission to avoid any censure there. At 53 members, it was too large to be an effective deliberative body and its sessions tended to be highly politicized and very divisive. It tended to be one-sided, with much of its attention focused on a small number of politically unpopular countries, while latent violations by others were ignored. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was particularly scathing in his criticisms of the Commission, since he had made human rights a centerpiece of his term in office. The new Human Rights Council was to correct some of these problems by requiring a higher hurdle for election to membership on the Council, by having a universal periodic review of the human rights performance of all Member States, begin
