Australia was elected to the council earlier in the week and its record on human rights was examined by UN experts in Geneva in the early hours of Thursday.
The UN Human Rights Committee noted Australia's "generally strong record", but queried former prime minister Tony Abbott's attack on a 2015 report into children in immigration detention.
Other issues raised by the committee included same-sex marriage, transgender and intersex rights, domestic violence, the sterilisation of intellectually disabled women and girls, and the balance between anti-terrorism laws and personal liberty.
Greens senator Nick McKim says Australia's election to the UN council is far from an endorsement of its human rights record, noting some "terrible" outcomes.
He welcomed the committee's scrutiny, especially the way refugees and asylum- seekers have been treated in Australian-backed detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.
"Boy, do we deserve it," Senator McKim told reporters in Canberra.
Labor senator Murray Watt acknowledged his party in government had re-opened the Manus Island centre.
"We never said people should languish in indefinite detention," he told reporters.
"We only ever saw it as a temporary move and we want to make sure they get off those detention camps as quickly as possible."
