On October 13, 2020, the United Nations General Assembly will re-elect 15 of the 47 seats to the Human Rights Council. Countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, whose human rights performance has been criticized by human rights organizations, will almost certainly be elected. Human rights groups have been raising objections for days. However, this may not necessarily affect the outcome of the election.
The 15 seats to be replaced come from all continents: five from Africa, four from the Asia-Pacific region, two from Eastern Europe, three from Latin America, and two from Western Europe and other regions. With the exception of the Asia Pacific region, all the other regions were elected on a 50-50 basis, and Russia and Cuba were thus assured of victory. The so-called elections are not real. In the Asia-Pacific region, five countries are competing for four seats. These are Saudi Arabia, China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. China’s re-election to the Human Rights Council is, to say the least, a no-brainer. This will be the fifth time that China will be a member of the Council.
This so-called election is controversial because it does not take into account the actual human rights situation in the candidate countries. The execution of the Saudi journalist Kashoggi has shocked the world; the near death of a prominent Russian opposition figure, Navalny, by poisoning has renewed the suspicion of international public opinion that the Putin regime is unscrupulous in its rejection of dissent. China allowed the UN mission to go to Xinjiang without a positive response from Beijing. And the massive police violence in Hong Kong during last year’s anti-sentinel protest movement also drew the attention of the Human Rights Council. But apparently none of these facts will stop countries with dismal human rights records from joining the Human Rights Council. Last week, 39 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, issued a joint statement expressing serious concern at the UN General Assembly about the human rights issues in Xinjiang and the situation in Hong Kong. Beijing joined 59 countries in supporting China’s position.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan initiated reforms in 2000, hoping that the Human Rights Council, which replaced the former Commission on Human Rights in 2006, would prevent some authoritarian regimes from expanding their influence in the Council. But the results were apparently limited.
In particular, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch has previously called for China and Saudi Arabia to be prevented from electing the Council, arguing that “China and Saudi Arabia not only commit massive human rights abuses at home, but also seek to undermine the international human rights system in which they claim to participate.”
Recent Comments