UNITED NATIONS: The United States won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council that has been condemned by former President Donald Trump and left, joining 17 other nations elected in uncontested votes on Thursday, criticizing the spots for those countries. who had a poor record of rights.
The 193-member United Nations General Assembly elected all 18 candidates proposed by the five regional groups proposed by world organizations. Benin was at the top with 189 votes, followed by The Gambia with 186, while the United States was at the bottom of the list with 168 and Eritrea with 144 votes.
Louis Charbonneau, the UN director of Human Rights Watch, said the lack of competition in this year’s Human Rights Council vote makes a mockery of the word ‘election’. The election of serious rights abusers such as Cameroon, Eritrea and the United Arab Emirates sends a terrifying signal that UN member states are not serious about the Council’s fundamental mission to protect human rights.
He said the Cameroonian government has suppressed the opposition, crushed dissent and persecuted gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. He added that Eritrean troops have committed widespread atrocities in neighboring Ethiopia’s Tigre region and other serious rights violations, and the rights situation in the United Arab Emirates remains dire.” without being imprisoned.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the commission discredited by some members’ poor rights record. But the new council soon faced similar criticism, with rights abusers demanding seats to protect themselves and their allies.
Under Human Rights Council rules, seats are allocated to regions to ensure geographical representation.
Israel has been heavily criticized by human rights councils for selecting candidates with poor rights records on the United States’ uncontested slate. This culminated in the withdrawal of the Trump administration from council in June 2018.
When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in February that the Biden administration was reuniting with the council, he said Trump’s withdrawal did nothing to encourage meaningful change, but instead a void of American leadership. Which has been used by countries with authoritarian agendas. their benefit.
In a statement on Thursday thanking UN member states for allowing the US to serve in the 47-nation institution, Blinken said the United States should join hands with other nations for efforts to destroy those ideals. We should back down against those on which the Human Rights Council was established.
He said the council has an important role to play in documenting atrocities to hold wrongdoers accountable, but added that it also suffers from serious flaws, including a greater focus on Israel and serious human rights issues with membership in multiple states. Records are included.
The 18 countries from the Africa Group were Benin, The Gambia, Cameroon, Somalia and Eritrea, elected to a three-year term beginning 1 January; India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar and UAE from the Asia Group; Lithuania and Montenegro from the East European Group; Paraguay, Argentina and Honduras from Latin America and the Caribbean group; and Finland, Luxembourg and the United States mainly from the Western group.
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