New York: China, Cuba and Russia were elected to the UN Human Rights Council despite vehement opposition from activists and organizations who say the countries’ governments are among the worst offenders of human rights globally.
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday elected 15 new members to the 47-nation council. Seats are allotted according to regional groups, and Russia ran unopposed, as did Cuba. Saudi Arabia failed to win a seat, losing out to China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan for spots in one group.
“Saudi Arabia’s failure to win a seat on the Human Rights Council is a welcome reminder of the need for more competition in UN elections,” said Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch. “Had there been additional candidates, China, Cuba and Russia might have lost too.”
The Human Rights Council has a long history of including members with checkered records on the very issue it’s supposed to help oversee. Venezuela was elected last year despite being accused by the UN of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture.
Rights groups say countries accused of violations try to use their seats to prevent scrutiny of their abuses. The U.S. has long argued that the council ignores widespread violations by several offenders while focusing too much on Israel, prompting President Donald Trump to withdraw from the group in 2018.
Repeated U.S. calls to reform the council have gone “unheeded, and today the UN General Assembly once again elected countries with abhorrent human rights records,” U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Tuesday in a statement. “These elections only further validate the U.S. decision to withdraw and use other venues and opportunities to protect and promote universal human rights.”
‘Worst Abusers’
Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, a nongovernmental watchdog organization, called it a “black day for human rights.”
“The United Nations Human Rights Council was founded to protect victims from human rights abuse. And yet they’ve just elected some of the world’s worst abusers,” he said.
The council’s controversial membership doesn’t mean it can’t shine a spotlight on human rights violators, though. A UN expert appointed by the council, for instance, recommended probing the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. A separate panel in March said Russia’s military conducted “indiscriminate” bombardments against civilians in Syria last year.
The vote that the Saudis lost was the only contested one. Ivory Coast, Malawi, Gabon, Senegal, Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Russia, Ukraine, the U.K. and France all won uncontested seats on Tuesday.
Russia’s ascension to the council comes as Europe takes steps to to retaliate against President Vladimir Putin’s government over the poisoning of Russia’s top opposition leader, Alexey Navalny. Meanwhile, 39 countries denounced China earlier this month for its treatment of ethnic minorities and for curtailing freedoms in Hong Kong. -Bloomberg
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