Members of the new International Human Rights Council met for the first time in December at The Carter Center to begin developing strategies to advance and protect human rights worldwide.

Representing diverse elements of the human rights field, the 27-member Council will foster greater collaboration among nongovernmental, international and national organizations, and world leaders. Members began exploring ways to create greater visibility for abuses of human rights, to speak out more strongly for global standards, to provide ideas and support for more effective U.N. human rights activities, and to share information and coordinate efforts among organizations in the field.

"The human rights community has traditionally taken an ex-post facto approach to problems--creating publicity for victims of torture, demanding accountability for persons who have 'disappeared,' or calling for the release of political prisoners," said former President Jimmy Carter, Council chair. "A missing element in this work is an organized effort to try to prevent the violation of human rights. We hope the International Human Rights Council can fill that gap."

The Council meeting focused on several broad goals, including:

• working to bolster the influence of human rights in United Nations activities;
• finding ways to assist understaffed U.N. offices that collect and disseminate information on human rights violations;
• promoting opportunities for domestic NGOs to have greater input on U.N. initiatives, including minimum standards of NGO participation in conferences and commissions;
• seeking ways to support and strengthen the efforts of the newly created post of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights;
• stimulating greater dialogue between private sector businesses and human rights organizations; and
• seeking ways to bolster an early warning system for human rights abuses to prevent incipient situations from deteriorating into large-scale catastrophes.

Serving on the Council are human rights leaders from around the world who can advise or assist NGOs, international agencies, and governments promoting and protecting human rights (see below). The Council includes several well-known activists. Wei Jingsheng, an activist for democratic and human rights reform in China, was invited by President Carter to join the Council, but was not permitted to travel to the United States for the meeting. Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka fled his native Nigeria to avoid likely arrest two weeks before participating in the Council meeting.

Operational support for the International Human Rights Council will be based at The Carter Center, which received a $750,000 grant from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to establish it.

International Human Rights Council