Unprecedented! The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is starting the new year without a president! The Council will hold an unprecedented secret ballot on the 15th, before the highest call for Fiji’s ambassador to Geneva (Nazhat Shameem Khan) was expected to take office last month, but because the Chinese Communist Party, Russia and Saudi Arabia fear that he is too important to human rights, will take a strong position, at this time Bahrain launched Ambassador Yusuf (Yusuf Abdulkarim) Bucheeri) to compete. The source said that China, Russia and Saudi Arabia want to choose someone who does not do anything so that he will not get in the way.
The dispute over the presidency of the Human Rights Council is now “at a stalemate,” the sources said, adding that the dispute could highlight the growing contention among some countries (China, Russia and Saudi Arabia) in the top UN body that intend to avoid electing a president who would criticize them for human rights violations.
The UN Human Rights Council is currently composed of 47 member states, with the majority of the UN General Assembly electing the president by direct and secret ballot, and the general practice of rotating the presidency among member states, usually by consensus. But at the beginning of this year, Member States failed to reach a consensus on a candidate, and Shameem of Fiji, who had been the only candidate, was even about to be announced in early December of last year (2020) when Ambassador Youssef of Bahrain suddenly appeared. Phil Lynk, head of the International Service for Human Rights, told AFP that Bahrain had been encouraged to come forward by countries including the Chinese Communist Party, the Saudis and Russia.
Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, criticized the opposition to Fiji as an overt attempt to weaken the Council’s power. He told AFP that those countries prefer the likes of Bahrain, which has little or no interest in promoting human rights and is better off not doing anything about them, as Bahrain itself is a serious violator of human rights; Fiji’s tough stance on many issues since joining the Human Rights Council in 2019 naturally worries those countries.
It is worth noting that both Fiji and Bahrain sent ambassadors to compete for the next presidency, but both were supported and opposed by several countries, so another Uzbek jumped out and joined the presidential race. Because none of the three candidates received a majority of consensus support, the Human Rights Council will have to hold an unprecedented secret ballot on the 15th.
Chinese diplomats are understood to be frustrated by this, as the family of observers analyzed that Fiji would likely win, given the current leanings of member states.
Fiji, which has always valued human rights, launched Ambassador Shamim in Geneva to run for the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council.
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