UN Human Rights Council Elections for 2026-2028 and the Responsibility to Protect

Today, 14 October, the UN General Assembly elected Angola, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, India, Iraq, Italy, Mauritius, Pakistan, Slovenia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam to the Human Rights Council (HRC) for the 2026-2028 term. With their election, 22 of the 47 Council members during 2026 will be “Friends of the Responsibility to Protect” – having appointed a Focal Point for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and/or joined the Group of Friends of R2P in New York and Geneva.

Following these ‘clean slate’ elections, newly elected members of the HRC have an opportunity to strengthen the Council’s credibility and advance principled leadership in atrocity prevention. Membership in the HRC carries the obligation, set forth in UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251, to uphold the highest standards of human rights and to fully cooperate with the Council’s mechanisms and procedures.

The HRC has an essential role in advancing R2P and supporting the prevention of mass atrocity crimes by monitoring human rights situations and using its mechanisms to provide early warning and respond to risks or occurrences of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. In July 2020 the HRC reaffirmed this responsibility in adopting a resolution on the “Fifteenth anniversary of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, as enshrined in the World Summit Outcome of 2005.”

The HRC is equipped with a wide-ranging toolbox through its mechanisms and procedures that contribute directly to early warning, prevention, accountability and protection. This includes the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Special Procedures, investigative mechanisms such as Commissions of Inquiry, Fact-Finding Missions and others, treaty bodies and the monitoring, reporting and technical assistance provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Since systematic or widespread human rights violations serve as early warning signs of possible atrocities, Geneva-based mechanisms are often the first to sound the alarm about escalating risks. UN Special Procedures consistently raise early warnings on human rights emergencies and possible atrocity situations. UN-mandated investigative mechanisms gather evidence of violations and abuses and identify those responsible, while serving as early warning tools. Additionally, their detailed reports not only deepen our understanding of atrocity risk factors, but also support prevention strategies, deter potential perpetrators, promote accountability and recommend structural reforms to strengthen national resilience. International treaty bodies and the UPR hold states accountable to their human rights obligations by assessing performance and offering concrete recommendations for improvement.

These tools and procedures embody R2P in practice. They play an important role in helping states uphold their primary responsibility to protect, enable the international community to provide support in preventing mass atrocities and mobilize timely and decisive responses when states are manifestly failing, or unwilling, to protect their populations. Since 2008 the HRC has referred to states’ responsibility to protect their populations in at least 86 thematic and country resolutions. Since it became operational in 2006, the Council has established 40 investigative bodies to respond to situations where serious violations and abuses of human rights were being committed.

Nevertheless, more work needs to be done to turn early warning into timely preventive action. Too often, the Council’s potential is undermined by a lack of political will or inconsistency/lack of action based on objective criteria. Selectivity and double standards not only undermine international law but erode trust, particularly with affected communities. Despite HRC-mandated investigative mechanisms producing documentation of potential atrocities, the atrocity prevention lens and assessment of risks have not been systematically included within mandates. Meaningful political follow-up on investigative findings is frequently lacking, with mechanisms sometimes terminated even while risks remain imminent – as seen in the decision to end the investigations into Ethiopia in 2023, for example. The divide between Geneva and New York also remains a barrier to cohesive action, preventing early warning generated by HRC mechanisms from shaping Security Council action.

For the HRC to truly champion R2P, its members must move beyond rhetoric to practical, consistent action. The tools are already at hand, what is required is the political will to use them, the resources to sustain them and the commitment to bridge institutional divides. R2P is a promise to act on behalf of people for whom mass atrocities are not abstract words, but real acts that pose an existential threat to them, their loved ones and communities. Upholding this commitment is one of the surest ways the HRC can fulfill its founding promise of protecting human rights and dignity for all.

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect encourages all newly elected and existing HRC members to utilize the broad array of tools to advance early warning, prevention, accountability and protection.

Our recommendations are available to read and download here: 2026-2028 UN Human Rights Council Elections and the Responsibility to Protect

Copyright © 2025 Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, All rights reserved.