The European Union, Human Rights and the United Nations

Abstract

For several years now, the European Union has repeatedly and prominently declared that it seeks to promote human rights issues within the United Nations, in line with its commitments to the UN and to promoting respect for human rights in third countries. This chapter analyses the EU’s activity to promote human rights at the UN, and specifically in the two main intergovernmental bodies on human rights, the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly’s Third Committee. It also considers the EU’s support for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and its position on the reform of the UN’s human rights machinery. Throughout, the chapter addresses the core questions at the heart of this book: To what extent is the EU a unified actor at the UN in this area? How ‘Europeanized’ are the member states? What sort of ‘output’ does the EU produce at the UN? How effectively does it promote its positions on human rights at the UN? Does it play a major role at the UN in this area?