The United Nations human-rights chief says Canada can boost its chances of joining the council that monitors freedom around the world by better following up on the pledges it makes at home and abroad.

"When you think of Canada, you think of human rights," said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a Tuesday interview.
 Turk visited Ottawa this week to touch base on human-rights issues in general, including how they are handled in Canada and how Ottawa can best address issues abroad.

His visit comes as Canada campaigns to join the UN Human Rights Council for a term spanning from 2028 to 2030. That body will undertake an in-depth review of the human-rights situation in Canada next month, as part of an exercise applied to most countries every four years.

Turk said the Canadian government should consider not relying on the four-year review, and instead do its own annual or biannual exercises to take stock of how Canada is doing.

"It is important that the various recommendations that came from these various processes are obviously implemented and followed up on. And that's always a constant call from us," he said.