Slovenia wins seat on UN Human Rights Council for second time

Ethiopia was re-elected as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council with 186 votes to serve for another three-year term beginning on 1 January 2016, APA learns here Thursday.

The sources attributed the loss to the way the Pakistani delegation fought the election, adding that it could not lobby effectively for the vote.

Along with the UAE, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, and South Korea were elected from Asia, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Georgia and Slovenia from Europe, Burundi, Cote D'Ivoire, Togo and Ethiopia from Africa and Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela from Latin America and the Caribbean. The General Assembly can suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership.

When electing council members, countries were required "to take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made in this regard", according to the General Assembly resolution that established the council in 2006.

Pakistan's current term at the council is set to expire on December 31 and it was seeking re-election to the 47-member Human Rights Council.

In addition, the Indians actively lobbied to keep Pakistan out of the Council, which is based in Geneva.

Days before the vote, several human rights bodies had opposed the re-election of Venezuela, Pakistan and UAE to the UN Human Rights Council due to widespread criticism of these governments for egregious human rights violations. Human rights records of other elected countries include violence against women, human trafficking and limits on freedom of expression and assembly, United Nations Watch said in a report published ahead of the elections on Wednesday.