The elections of the United Nations Human Rights Council took
place at the General Assembly in New York, USA, on 12 May 2009. Candidates from 20 countries vied
for 18 seats. A "closed slate" from the Asian region – Jordan (178), Kyrgyzstan (174),
Bangladesh (171), China (167) and Saudi Arabia (154) – won with no
competitor. Yap Swee Seng, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA, said
"Countries that care about human rights should take note and come
forward to challenge and defeat rights abusers in future elections".
Non-governmental organisations, including FORUM-ASIA, issued a press
release below on the day of the election.
The elections of the United Nations Human Rights Council took
place at the General Assembly in New York, USA, on 12 May 2009. Candidates from 20 countries vied
for 18 seats.
A
"closed slate" from the Asian region – Jordan (178), Kyrgyzstan (174),
Bangladesh (171), China (167) and Saudi Arabia (154) – won with no
competitor. Yap Swee Seng, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA, said
"Countries that care about human rights should take note and come
forward to challenge and defeat rights abusers in future elections".
Non-governmental organisations, including FORUM-ASIA, issued a press
release below on the day of the election.
The United Nations General
Assembly's election of Human Rights Council members today was marred by lack of
competition in three of the five UN regional groups, the NGO Coalition for an
Effective Human Rights Council said. Although Azerbaijan was defeated in a
competitive election, other rights abusers benefited from the lack of choices,
said the human rights groups.
In most regions, the number of candidates was equal to
the number of open seats, leaving General Assembly members without a choice of
candidates. Only 20 countries competed for 18 open seats on the 47-member
council.
The groups said that the US decision to run for the
council for the first time was a positive step, but that a lack of competition
among Western countries sent the wrong message. New Zealand withdrew its
candidacy the day the US announced it was running for the council, allowing the
US to be elected unopposed.
"Competition resulted in the defeat of countries like
Belarus, Iran, Venezuela, and Sri Lanka in past years, and Azerbaijan this
year", said Yap Swee Seng, executive director of Asian Forum for Human Rights
and Development (FORUM-ASIA). "Countries that care about human rights should
take note and come forward to challenge and defeat rights abusers in future
elections".
General Assembly members rejected Azerbaijan's candidacy
in a competitive election in which three candidates competed for the two open
seats reserved for Eastern European countries. Civil society members in
Azerbaijan had urged General Assembly members not to vote for their country
because of its deteriorating rights situation, and international advocates had
joined their call. The General Assembly elected Russia with 146 votes and
Hungary with 131. Azerbaijan, with 89 votes, did not even reach the 97-vote
threshold necessary for election.
"Today's voting should act as a wake-up call to
Azerbaijan to improve its rights record and give hope to Azerbaijani human
rights defenders and journalists who called for their country's defeat", said
Igor Blazevic, head of the human rights and democracy department of People in
Need. "Azerbaijan's defeat shows that states will elect a country with a better
rights record when given a choice".
This year, international human rights organizations
opposed the election of Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia to the
Human Rights Council because of their persistent serious human rights
violations. With the exception of Azerbaijan, all were elected to the council.
But Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba came in at the very bottom of their regional
slates.
"If there had been a competitive election in these
groups, those countries could have been defeated," said Steve Crawshaw, UN
advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The absence of competition is
damaging. Governments need to make clear that competition
matters".
In the Asian region, the NGO coalition opposed bids by
China and Saudi Arabia for seats on the council, but both were elected without
opposing candidates, with just five countries running for five seats.
"Saudi
Arabia is not the best that Asia – or the Middle East – has to offer", said
Bahey el-din Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
"In its first term on the council, Saudi Arabia failed entirely to live up to
the obligations and commitments required of it as a council member – given its
re-election, it must deliver real reform, rather than empty
promises".
When they created the Human Rights Council in 2006, UN
states required that General Assembly members take into account candidates'
human rights records in casting their votes. Council members are required to
"uphold the highest standards" of human rights and "fully cooperate" with the
council. In order to win, each candidate must secure an absolute majority of the
General Assembly members – 97 votes.
"China and Russia are among the most powerful countries
in the world, but countries could have used the secret ballot to withhold the
necessary votes from both based on their extremely poor rights record," said
Paula Schreifer, advocacy director at Freedom House. "That countries rewarded
rights abusers with votes suggests that countries from every region need to
reconsider their commitment to the promotion of human rights and the credibility
of the Human Rights Council".
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