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Saudis Lose Bid for Seat on UN Human Rights Council

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia failed in its bid to win a seat on the
   controversial U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday, but other nations
   with abysmal rights records, including China and Russia, made it on to
   the 47-nation body. '¯

   "Today is a black day for human rights," Hillel Neuer, executive
   director of U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based rights group, said ahead of the
   vote.

   The General Assembly elected by secret ballot Bolivia, Britain, China,
   Cuba, France, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan,
   Russia, Senegal, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. They will serve three-year
   terms beginning Jan. 1, 2021. '¯

   The outcome of the vote was mostly preordained, with candidates put
   forward by regional groups that set forth the same number of candidates
   as seats. The only contested group was Asia-Pacific, which saw Saudi
   Arabia lose to China, Pakistan, Nepal and Uzbekistan for the four
   available seats. '¯

   Nations elected to the Geneva-based HRC are expected to "uphold the
   highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights" both
   at home and abroad. Human rights groups have strongly criticized many
   of the new members for having shoddy or appalling rights records. '¯

   "Serial rights abusers should not be rewarded with seats on the Human
   Rights Council," said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director for New
   York-based rights group Human Rights Watch.'¯

   He pointed to China's "massive" violation of human rights at home and
   efforts to undermine "the international human rights system they're
   demanding to be a part of."'¯

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