In 2012-13, Israel stopped cooperating with the HRC for 17 months, after claiming for years of grossly unfair treatment. At that point, of all the resolutions ever passed by the council condemning a specific country, more than one-third had applied to Israel alone.
As part of its boycott, Israel became the first country to refuse to take part in the “universal periodic review” (UPR), an exercise every UN member-state is expected to undergo once every four years.
The move worried the U.S. and other countries that view the UPR as one of the most important HRC mechanisms. Those countries were concerned that Israel’s position could be cited as a precedent by other countries wanting to avoid scrutiny in future.
Israel relented and resumed cooperation in October 2013, but in return for a pledge by Western countries not to take part in HRC debates under item seven.
A second condition laid down by Israel was its inclusion in a regional group. Until then, it was the only country that did not belong to one of the five regional groups in Geneva. In late 2013 it was eventually granted membership in the Western European and Others group, which includes such non-European democracies as the U.S., Canada and Australia.
(CNSNews)