Targets and Perpetrators: Resolutions and Voting in the UNCHR and UNHRC1
Simon Hug2
Département de science
politique et
relations internationales,
Université de Genève
Paper prepared for presentation at the
55th ISA Annual Convention (Toronto, March 26-29, 2014)
First version: September 2013, this
version: Sep 23, 2013
Abstract
Despite the high hopes for the new United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
targeted resolutions against specific countries continue to play a considerable
role in the activities of this new assembly (compared to its predecessor, the
United Nations Commission for Human Rigths). Drawing on data on resolutions and
votes in these two bodies I can show that targets of specific resolutions do not
necessarily have worse human rights records than the sponsors of these resolutions.
Using an item-response theory model I can also demonstrate that resolutions sponsored
by human rights offenders targeting specific countries split the voting members of
these two bodies very differently, compared to other resolutions. Consequently,
the UNHRC appears to follow in the tracks of the UNCHR when it comes to politicizing
human rights debates.
1 Introduction
Footnotes:
1Research assistance by Simone
Wegmann and partial financial support by the Swiss National Science
Foundation (Grant-No 100012-129737) are gratefully acknowledged.
2 Département de science politique et
relations internationales, Faculté des
sciences économiques et sociales; Université de Genève; 40 Bd du Pont
d'Arve; 1211 Genève 4; Switzerland; phone ++41 22 379 89 47; email:
simon.hug@unige.ch
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