On October 13, 2020, China, Russia, and Cuba won seats on the UN’s human rights council despite opposition from activist groups over their abysmal human rights records. However, Saudi Arabia lost. Russia and Cuba were running unopposed, but China and Saudi Arabia were in a five-way race. In this race, Pakistan received 169 votes, Uzbekistan 164, Nepal 150, China 139, but Saudi Arabia just 90 votes, in secret-ballot voting in the 193-member UN General Assembly. Four seats went to African countries—Ivory Coast, Malawi, Gabon, and Senegal. Two East European seats went to Russia and Ukraine. Mexico, Cuba, and Bolivia won the three open seats in the Latin American and Caribbean group. And two seats for the Western European and others group went to Britain and France. As per the Council’s rules, seats are allocated to regions to ensure geographical representation. The election of 15 members, except for the Asia-Pacific contest, was all but decided in advance because all the other regional groups had uncontested states.
Though Saudi Arabia announced reform plans, Human Rights Watch and others strongly opposed its candidacy saying it continues to target human rights defenders, dissidents, and women’s rights activists. They said that Saudi had demonstrated little accountability for past abuses, including the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two years ago.
In the Asia-Pacific group of four members, China got the lowest vote because of its mass rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet, and against ethnic Uighurs in the Chinese province of Xinjiang as well as attacks on rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and government critics as their call was echoed by over 400 civil society groups from more than 60 countries.
Similarly, the rights group said Russia’s military operations with the Syrian government deliberately or indiscriminately killed civilians and destroyed hospitals and other protected civilian infrastructure in violation of international humanitarian law. The group also noted Russia’s veto of UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, including blocking Damascus’ referral to the International Criminal Court.
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The UN Human Rights Council, created by the United Nations General Assembly on March 15, 2006 by resolution 60/251, is an inter-governmental body, comprising 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year. It meets at the UN Office at Geneva. Its members are elected by the UN General Assembly. It replaces the former UN Commission on Human Rights.
Among its procedures and mechanisms are the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, which serves to assess the human rights situations in all United Nations Member States; the Advisory Committee which serves as the Council’s ‘think tank’ and provides it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues; and the Compliant Procedure, which allows individuals and organisations to bring human rights violations to the attention of the Council.
Courtesy: Indian Express, ohchr.org