Human Rights Council Subsidiary Bodies

On 18 June 2007, one year after its first meeting, the Human Rights Council adopted its "Institution-building package" (resolution 5/1) which details procedures, mechanisms and structures that form the basis of its work. Among those mechanisms the following subsidiary bodies directly report to the Human Rights Council:

• Universal Periodic Review Working Group
• Advisory Committee
• Complaint Procedure
  

The Council also established the following subsidiary expert mechanisms to provide the Council with thematic expertise and forums providing a platform for dialogue and cooperation. These bodies focus mainly on studies, research-based advice or best-practices. They meet and report annually to the Council:

• Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People
• Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development
• Forum on Minority Issues
• Social Forum
• Forum on Business and Human Rights
• Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law

The Council further established the following open-ended intergovernmental working groups to elaborate and/or negotiate and finalize new draft legal instruments or to make recommendations on the effective implementation of existing instruments:

• Working Group on the Right to Development
• Intergovernmental Working Group on the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
• Working Group on an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards
• Open-ended intergovernmental working group on the draft United Nations declaration on human rights education and training
• Open-ended intergovernmental working group on regulatory framework of activities of private military and security companies
• Open-ended intergovernmental working group on a draft United Nations declaration on the right to peace
• Open-ended intergovernmental working group on a United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas
• Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights

The Council also establishes the Special Procedures mandates and appoints the respective mandate holders, which report annually to the Council from a thematic or country-specific perspective.