Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council is part of the UN, responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of all human rights and addressing human rights violations. It holds regular sessions three times a year, including a day on child rights every March. Child Rights NGOs can take part in its work in a number of different ways.
What is the Human Rights Council?
The Human Rights Council (HRC) is an inter-governmental body which is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of all human rights and addressing human rights violations. The HRC holds regular sessions in Geneva three times a year in March, June and September. It can also meet for special sessions, usually to address serious human rights crises, such as the recent sessions on Syria. The HRC is composed of 47 UN Member States, which are elected by the UN General Assembly. The HRC covers all human rights, including issues specifically related to child rights. NGO Engagement with the HRC For more information on how the HRC works, please visit the OHCHR website. Find out more about the session at the HRC website. The HRC sessions are webcast. If you would like to watch them, go to the media section on the OHCHR website. To find out more about what child rights NGOs are doing during the session in relation to some of the resolutions, contact Child Rights Connect. Every year, the HRC dedicates a full day to discuss a specific child rights theme during its March session. At the end of the session, it negotiates and adopts a resolution about the specific theme or child rights in general. This more general resolution is called an Omnibus Resolution. How to Take Part in the Annual Day Child Rights Connect has gathered a non-exhaustive list of recent resolutions related to child rights.
Next session
Annual Day on the Rights of the Child
See how Child Rights Connect ensures children’s voices are taken into account:
2015 Annual Day – towards better investment in the rights of the child2014 Annual Day – access to justice for children
Each year, Child Rights Connect helps organise the Annual Day along with States and UN agencies. We create an ad hoc group of NGOs for each theme to ensure that the NGOs with relevant expertise can contribute to both the organisation of the panel discussion and the resolution. read more
Child Rights Resolutions in the HRC
For a full list of all the resolutions of the HRC, please refer to the OHCHR website.