UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC)
The UN Human Rights Council , or HRC, is an inter-governmential body within the UN system made up of 47 Stateis responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe. The HRC is a key process within the UN system to study, investigate, assess and provide recommendations on human rights issues and violations. The Council undertakes a Universal Periodic Review of the human rights record of all 192 UN member states once every four years.
The HRC also has a "Special Procedures" mechanism where independent individuals (known as Special Rapporteurs, Special Representatives or Individual Experts) or working groups with expertise on particular thematic areas are mandated to, amongst other things, respond to individual complaints and conduct studies. They are mean to be independent, and prepare an annual report as well as specific reports on country missions which are presented to the HRC and respond to questions and comments on them.
Source: Wikipedia.org, UN HRC website
