"The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) was established in 2006 by the UN General Assembly. In 2005, Secretary-General Kofi Annan had called for an end to the discredited Commission on Human Rights, which, in his words, had 'cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.'
Unfortunately, the record shows that the HRC has not performed better than the discredited Commission. It too has failed to confront the world’s most serious human rights situations in an unbiased manner. Although several governments have been willing to criticize the HRC for its shortcomings, the prospects for UN member states to take action to address them are slight...
The most obvious example of bias is the HRC’s disproportionate focus on Israel. Alone among the world’s countries, Israel is subject to a separate item of the HRC agenda: Agenda Item 7, titled 'Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.' Every other human rights situation is examined under Agenda Item 4, titled 'Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention.'...
Turning a blind eye to human rights violations
Despite being specifically instructed to address violations of human rights and, specifically, gross and systematic violations, the HRC too often fails to do so..."