The Charter Organs

In one line

Article 7 establishes a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat, and permits such subsidiary organs as may be found necessary, which is the provision under which every human rights body in the United Nations system exists.

Article 7

There are established as principal organs of the United Nations: a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat.

And: such subsidiary organs as may be found necessary may be established in accordance with the present Charter.

That second sentence carries the whole human rights machinery. The Commission on Human Rights was a subsidiary of the Economic and Social Council; the Human Rights Council is a subsidiary of the General Assembly; every special procedure and every commission of inquiry is created under it.

Article 8: no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in the principal and subsidiary organs, which is the Charter's only operative equality provision.

The General Assembly

Article 10 is the broadest grant of competence in the Charter. The Assembly may discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organ, and, except as provided in article 12, may make recommendations to Members, to the Security Council, or to both.

Recommendations, not decisions. That single word governs everything the Assembly does outside its budgetary and internal powers.

Article 11 covers international peace and security, with a duty to refer to the Security Council any such question on which action is necessary.

Article 12 is the limit: while the Security Council is exercising in respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it, the General Assembly shall not make any recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless the Security Council so requests.

Article 13(1)(b) is the human rights mandate: the Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of promoting international co-operation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

Article 14 allows recommendations for the peaceful adjustment of any situation, regardless of origin, which it deems likely to impair the general welfare or friendly relations among nations, including situations resulting from a violation of the provisions of the present Charter setting forth the Purposes and Principles.

Article 14 is the answer to the domestic jurisdiction objection in a human rights debate, because the words regardless of origin and the express reference to violations of the Purposes and Principles authorise the Assembly to address a situation arising inside a State.