Over the last years, growing concern over whether commissions of inquiry and Special Procedures are, on their own, capable of delivering accountability to the law, has led to the development of new types of mechanisms, such as international, impartial independent mechanisms (IIIMs). At the same time, an expanding group of countries, led by the US, Canada, and the EU, have established and applied so-called ‘Magnitsky laws,’ to individually sanction the perpetrators of serious human rights violations and corruption.
Both IIIMs and Magnitsky laws represent an important shift from mechanisms that emphasise accountability to the truth to mechanisms that emphasise accountability to the law, and a concurrent shift from State to individual accountability.
With this programme, URG explores whether the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms have been able to fulfil its mandate to secure accountability for serious human rights violations. Building on this analysis, URG provides recommendations to States on the strengthening of existing human rights accountability structures.
