[JURIST] UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson [official profile] on Thursday unveiled a draft proposal for a new United Nations human rights body that would replace the highly criticized Commission on Human Rights [UN backgrounder]. The blueprint [PDF text] describes a 47-member Human Rights Council whose membership would be open to all UN member states. States would be elected to the Council by a majority of members of the General Assembly [official website], not two-thirds, as some countries had pushed for. Eliasson also spelled out several ways the proposed Council would differ from the current Commission, including:

the new Human Rights Council would be a subsidiary body of the General Assembly and therefore have a higher institutional standing; ...

the universal periodic review would be a mechanism where the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations would be assessed;

the distribution of seats would be in accordance with equitable geographical distribution;

members of the Council would not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms;

while membership of the Human Rights Council would be open to all Member States, there would be legitimate expectations on members. Asserting its standing and authority, the General Assembly would have the ability to suspend a Council member which commits gross and systematic violations of human rights;

and lastly, the Human Rights Council would meet regularly throughout the year.