Human rights groups criticize uncontested election of 15 countries to top UN human rights body

UNITED NATIONS — Human rights groups sharply criticized Tuesday's uncontested election of 15 members of the United Nations’ premier human rights body, saying it resulted in countries with poor rights records winning seats.

Positions on the 47-nation Human Rights Council are allocated to the U.N.’s regional groups to ensure geographical representation. And for the second year in a row, all regional groups put forward the exact number of candidates for available seats for the three-year term. This meant that in Tuesday’s election in the 193-member General Assembly there were no competitive races.

“This uncompetitive vote makes a mockery of the word ‘election,’” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “No one should have a seat on this crucial body handed to them on a silver platter.”

He called on U.N. member nations to “insist on competitive slates so they can reject candidates with poor human rights records.”

In Tuesday’s vote, the Africa group’s Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Burundi were elected. The Asia-Pacific group’s Kuwait, Nepal, Jordan and Japan won seats. So did the Latin America and Caribbean group’s Brazil, Dominican Republic and Uruguay. The mainly Western group’s Ireland and Germany and the Central and East European group’s Moldova and Ukraine will also join the Human Rights Council.

The Geneva-based council reviews the human rights records of all countries periodically, appoints independent investigators to report on issues such as torture and situations in countries such as North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, and sends fact-finding missions to investigate rights violations. These include in Ukraine, the Palestinian territories and Israel and Sudan — all currently engulfed in conflict.

The council was created in 2006 to replace a human rights commission that was discredited because of some members’ poor rights records. But the new council soon came to face similar criticism, including that countries sought seats to protect themselves and their allies.

Soon after starting his second term, President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Human Rights Council, He also pulled the U.S. out in his first term accusing it of anti-Israel bias.

In its criticism of Tuesday's vote, Human Rights Watch singled out the “abusive human rights conditions” in the central African nation of Burundi. It said that despite some positive government statements, “Burundi has not carried out meaningful reform to address longstanding concerns related to governance, justice or accountability.”

It also said Nigeria should ensure accountability for serious crimes committed during the conflict with the armed group Boko Haram by all parties, including security forces. Brazil needs to “investigate and curb police abuse” after last year’s killing of more than 6,500 people — the vast majority of them Black — by law enforcement officers, it said.

While Ukraine has suffered “countless atrocities committed by Russian forces,” Human Rights Watch said Ukrainian authorities have also “unjustly prosecuted Ukrainian civilians living under Russian occupation” for doing permitted work, including as teachers, medics, municipal workers and volunteers.

The International Service for Human Rights, a Geneva=based organization that supports rights defenders, said never has the work of the council been so essential .

“States with a real commitment to upholding human rights should be doing everything they can to ensure the body includes states that uphold the highest human rights standards," said Madeleine Sinclair, director of its New York office.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, responding to a question about the U.N. position on the uncontested vote, said it’s a matter for the 193 member nations. “But what we’ve always said is that member states who are elected to this organization’s highest human rights body have an added responsibility to protect human rights, not only in their own home country, but also to be strong advocates for human rights globally,” he said.