The General Assembly today elected 14 Member States to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for promoting and protecting all human rights around the globe.
By secret ballot, the Assembly elected Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Georgia, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Morocco, Romania, South Africa, Sudan, and Viet Nam to the Geneva-based body. All 14 members will serve three-year terms beginning on 1 January 2023.
The newly elected States will replace the following outgoing members: Armenia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Libya, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Namibia, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Korea, and Venezuela. Germany and Sudan, both current members that were re-elected today, will continue for another term.
The 14 new members were elected according to the following pattern: four seats for the African States; four seats for the Asia-Pacific States; two seats for the Eastern European States; two seats for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two seats for Western European and other States.
Csaba Korösi (Hungary), President of the General Assembly, announced that the following States will continue as members of the Council: Argentina, Benin, Bolivia, Cameroon, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Czechia, Eritrea, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malawi, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Senegal, Somalia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Uzbekistan.
Created by the General Assembly in March 2006 as the principal United Nations entity dealing with human rights, the Human Rights Council comprises 47 elected Member States. On the basis of equitable geographical distribution, Council seats are allocated to the five regional groups as follows: African States, 13 seats; Asia-Pacific States, 13 seats; Eastern European States, 6 seats; Latin American and Caribbean States, 8 seats; and Western European and other States, 7 seats.
Prior to the vote, the representative of Singapore recalled the decision in resolution A/RES/71/323 adopted on 20 September 2017, which stated that campaign material given out in the Assembly hall during voting day should be limited to a single page. He reminded delegations to abide by the resolution and refrain from giving out gifts and other promotional material.
The Assembly President followed up by asking all Member States to refrain from the distribution of gifts until the election was conducted.
The General Assembly will reconvene its eleventh emergency special session at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 12 October, to discuss and take action on the draft resolution “Territorial integrity of Ukraine: defending the principles of the Charter of the United Nations”.
Source: United Nations