Concerns over new UN Human Rights Council members

(Credits to Reuters)

The UN General Assembly elected a total of 14 new members to the human rights council last week.

The new members will be on the council for three years from 2014. The body aims to shine a spotlight on rights abuses by adopting resolutions.

China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Vietnam and Algeria won seats unopposed, but human rights groups have complained that they are the countries that the body should be censuring.

The council’s membership is ‘based on equitable geographical distribution’, according to the UN news centre.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said the newly elected members of the council include ‘some that commit significant violations of the rights the council is designed to advance and protect’, and that the election itself was a reminder that the council’s work remains unfinished.

Human Rights Watch singled out all but one of the above five for having denied access to UN human rights monitors. Concerns have been raised about abuses and restrictions on freedoms in the first four countries.

The Human Rights Watch also stressed that the council will need to redouble their efforts on a number of problems. These include the Syrian civil war, crimes committed during the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war and the conflict in Central African Republic.

Iran and Syria had been planning to run for the Human Rights Council but pulled out amid criticism for their rights records.

Cuba said in May that it would consider letting in UN investigators to examine allegations of torture and repression.