UN Human Rights Council Restricts NGO Participation: “Human Rights Are Not a Cost-Cutting Item”

At the start of the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council on September 7, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticized the Council for increasingly restricting civil society participation. Non-governmental organizations with consultative status are once again limited to submitting a maximum of three written statements. Previously, up to five were allowed.

“The United Nations’ financial crisis must not turn into a crisis of participation. Human rights are not a budget cut,” explains Gerrit Hofert, UN coordinator for the STP. “Written statements make it possible to document human rights violations and to bring the concerns of affected communities directly into the work of the Human Rights Council.”

This limitation also forces the STP to be more selective about which human rights violations and concerns of threatened minorities and Indigenous Peoples it submits to the Council. At the upcoming session, the STP plans in particular to draw attention to the situation in Tibet and Xinjiang.

At the same time, funding for the UN human rights system is under considerable pressure: As part of the so-called UN80 reform, 117 positions were cut from the 2026 budget of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). On July 6, 2026, the UN General Assembly did confirm the Human Rights Council’s status as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly and emphasized the importance of adequate and sustainable funding for its work. However, it did not allocate additional funds.

The STP calls on UN member states to provide reliable funding for the Human Rights Council. The restriction on written NGO submissions must remain a temporary exception. In the context of the UN80 reforms, human rights mandates and civil society’s access must be protected.

“Fewer reports and fewer statements do not mean fewer human rights violations,” explains Hofert. “On the contrary, they mean fewer opportunities to bring these violations to international attention. Minorities, Indigenous Peoples, and human rights defenders, in particular, often lack direct access to the United Nations. The reforms must not result in their voices no longer being heard.”

The STP also takes a critical view of the composition of the Human Rights Council. According to the latest assessment by Freedom House, only 23 of the 47 member states are considered “free.” Twelve are classified as either “partly free” or “not free.”

When the Council was established, it was stipulated that members’ contributions to the protection of human rights must be taken into account in the election process. The STP criticizes the fact that notorious human rights violators are among the members as unacceptable.