The World Council of Churches has welcomed the newly elected UN Human Rights Council with the hope that it will grant a “truly open space” for NGOs to participate on the behalf of victims of human rights abuses.

The WCC together with the Lutheran World Federation, Franciscans International, Dominicans for Justice and Peace, and Pax Christi International expressed their optimism at the new body which they hope will also go some way to addressing some of the failings of the Council’s predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights.

The five Christian bodies said that “on paper” the new Council “may have some additional potential” for ensuring that human rights standards are met, something they accused the former UN Commission on Human Rights of achieving “too little and often too late”.

In their first written submission to the new body, the Christian organisations affirmed “their support for a strong, independent and adequately resourced system of special procedures”.