Australia was among the countries in the UN General Assembly that voted for the new council on an overwhelming majority, ignoring objections from the United States.
The new 47-seat Council will replace the Human Rights Commission which has been criticised for including countries with records of human rights violations.
The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, says he is very happy because they have been campaigning for five years to replace the old organisation.
"The problem with the old commission is that its stigma had become so powerful that highly abusive governments were flocking to it as a way of undermining its work.
"Today, about 50 per cent of the commission's members are abusive governments.
"So, we needed to start over.
"We needed a new body, like the council where the rules would be different and it would be much more difficult for an abusive government to gain membership."