New York, Oct. 14, (dpa/GNA) – China, Russia and Cuba were among more than a dozen countries elected to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, drawing the ire of rights groups who called the three nations “major violators.”
Saudi Arabia, another contender whose bid activists had opposed, failed to win one of the 15 vacant seats on the 47-strong body in the election, held by the UN General Assembly in New York.
Most countries ran unopposed, including Russia. China and Saudi Arabia were vying for seats in the Asia-Pacific regional group, the only one contested, with five nations competing for four vacancies.
“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. Had there been additional candidates, China, Cuba and Russia might have lost too,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch.
He said that by being on the council, “these abusers will be directly in the spotlight.”
“Uncompetitive UN votes like this one make a mockery of the word ‘election,'” Charbonneau said ahead of the vote, adding that “serial rights abusers should not be rewarded with seats” on the UN’s top human rights body.
“Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based rights group.
Neuer said it was “logically absurd and morally obscene” for the UN to elect China, which has been criticized for its treatment of ethnic minorities and the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Last week, some 40 countries expressed “grave concerns” about Beijing’s human rights record at the UN, citing mass internment camps in China’s western Xinjiang region and the repression of the Uighur Muslim minority.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have been accused of crushing dissent at home and condemned for their involvement in wars in Yemen and Syria.
“Saudi Arabia carried out a record 184 executions in 2019. Russia assassinates journalists and poisons dissidents. Cuba is a police state,” Neuer said.
Cuba, Bolivia and Mexico took the three available seats in the Latin American and Caribbean group. In addition to China, Nepal, Pakistan and Uzbekistan won the Asia-Pacific seats.
Ivory Coast, Gabon, Malawi and Senegal were the winners among African countries, while Britain and France were also elected to join the council.
Alongside Russia, Ukraine won a vacant seat in the Eastern European group.
The new members will take up three-year terms, starting in January.
Countries currently serving on the Geneva-based council despite opposition from rights groups include Venezuela and Libya.
The UN says that in voting for new members, states should “take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights.”
Council members are charged with upholding the highest human rights standards.
The United States left the body two years ago, accusing it of being a poor defender of human rights and hostile to Israel.
“The election of China, Russia, and Cuba to the UN Human Rights Council validates the US decision to withdraw from the Council in 2018 and use other venues to protect and promote universal human rights,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted.
GNA