A Reflection on the Principle of Neutrality of United Nations Officials: A Case Study of Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Zeinab Farahmandzad
Assistant Professor, Department of Law and International Relations, Faculty of Humanities and Islamic Sciences of Islamic Revolution, Enghelab Eslami University, Tehran, Iran.
10.48315/qgl.2024.187522
Abstract
The performance of the special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council and the agents of the United Nations Fact-Finding Committee will draw the attention of the international community to the situation of human rights violations in a country and create a record that can be cited for institutions, international organizations and international courts. While the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council are praised by the United Nations for their activities in addressing human rights violations, they are simultaneously criticized by the member states of the United Nations for actions that are allegedly inconsistent with their obligations. The departure from the neutrality and independence of the mission experts is one of the factors that make governments distrustful of the non-political approach of the Human Rights Council and its rapporteurs and it will lead to the non-cooperation of the monitored governments. A review of the obligations of special procedures through the view point of the main documents governing the activities of "experts of the mission" of the United Nations shows that the guarantee of effective implementation for the departure of these agents from neutrality and a ritual to complain about this approach of the reporters is not considered in the documents of the Human Rights Council.
Keywords
special rituals
principle of neutrality
United Nations
Human Rights Council
fact-finding committee
special rapporteur