A/RES/56/146 Noting in particular that the status quo tends to be particularly detrimental to the election of experts from some regional groups, Convinced that the goal of equitable geographical distribution in the membership of human rights treaty bodies is perfectly compatible and can be fully realized and achieved in harmony with the need to ensure gender balance and the representation of the principal legal systems in those bodies and the high moral character, acknowledged impartiality and recognized competence in the field of human rights of their members, 1. Encourages States parties to the United Nations human rights instruments to establish quota distribution systems by geographical region for the election of the members of the treaty bodies; 2. Calls upon the States parties to the United Nations human rights instruments to include, as an agenda item at their forthcoming meetings, the establishment of equitable geographical distribution in the membership of the human rights treaty bodies, based on the recommendations of the Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council and the provisions of the present resolution; 3. Recommends, when establishing the quota for each geographical region in each treaty body, the introduction of flexible procedures that encompass the following criteria: (a) Each of the five regional groups established by the General Assembly must be assigned a quota of the membership of each treaty body in equivalent proportion to the number of States parties to the instrument that it represents; (b) There must be provision for periodic revisions that reflect the relative changes in the geographical distribution of States parties; (c) Automatic periodic revisions should be envisaged in order to avoid amending the text of the instrument when the quotas are revised; 4. Stresses that the process needed to achieve the goal of equitable geographical distribution in the membership of human rights treaty bodies can contribute to raising awareness of the importance of gender balance, the representation of the principal legal systems and the principle that the members of the treaty bodies shall be elected and shall serve in their personal capacity, and shall be of high moral character, acknowledged impartiality and recognized competence in the field of human rights. 88th plenary meeting 19 December 2001 2