European Legislation:

On February 24th, 2005 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on its priorities for the 61st UN Human Rights Commission. Included in the text of the resolution is an endorsement of establishing criteria for membership to the Human Rights Commission

United States Legislation:

In November, 2003 Senator Joseph Biden introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 83: A concurrent resolution promoting the establishment of a democracy caucus within the United Nations. This bill urges the President to instruct any U.S. representative to a United Nations (UN) body to use the voice and vote of the United States to seek to establish a democracy caucus within the UN.

The bill endorses limiting participation in the caucus to countries that are qualified to participate in the Community of Democracies and have demonstrated a commitment to specified democratic principles and practices.

This bill was passed in the Senate unanimously on June 24, 2004.

In March, 2004 Representatives Tom Lantos (D-CA) and David Dreier (R-CA) introduced HR 4053: International Leadership Act. This bill directs the President, through the Secretary of State, to support creation of a democracy caucus at the United Nations and other UN bodies.

The bill states that a democracy caucus at an international organization should: (1) forge common positions on matters of concern before the organization and work within and across regional lines to promote agreed positions; (2) work to revise an increasingly outmoded system of regional voting and decision making; and (3) set up a rotational leadership scheme to provide member states an opportunity, for a set period of time, to serve as the designated president of the caucus, responsible for serving as its voice in each organization.

A compromise version of these two bills was adopted by the House and the Senate as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act signed into law in December 2004. One element of the compromise version is to reform the membership and leadership criteria at UN bodies and other international organizations using the following guidelines:

(1)	where appropriate, reform the criteria for leadership and, in appropriate cases, for membership, at all United Nations bodies and at other international organizations and multilateral institutions to which the United States is a member so as to exclude countries that violate the principles of the specific organization;
(2)	make it a policy of the United Nations and other international organizations and multilateral institutions of which the United States is a member that a member country may not stand in nomination for membership or in nomination or in rotation for a significant leadership position in such bodies if the member country is subject to sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council; and
(3)	work to ensure that no member country stand in nomination for membership, or in nomination or in rotation for a significant leadership position in such organizations, or for membership on the United Nations Security Council, if the government of the member country has been determined by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.