Africa: Three Nations Join UN Human Rights Council

By George Okore

GENEVA---Three African nations are among 15 new members of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council after a round of balloting among UN Member States.

Benin, Botswana, the Republic of Congo together with Austria, Costa Rica and Kuwait will make their debut on the Council next month, starting three-year terms on the 47-member panel that allots seats according to a formula based on world regions.

The other newly elected members – although they have previously completed stints since the Council was created in 2006 – are Burkina Faso, Chile, Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Italy, Peru, Philippines and Romania. General Assembly President Joseph Deiss announced the results of the voting, which was conducted by secret ballot among Member States at UN Headquarters in New York.

Four countries were elected in the African category, four in the Asian States grouping and three from Latin America and the Caribbean, while two countries were chosen from Eastern Europe and two from the Western European and other States grouping. In the Eastern European category, Georgia was unsuccessful, while in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nicaragua missed out on a seat.

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the UN system made up of 47 States responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.  The Council was created by the UN General Assembly on March 15, 2006 with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.