Election of 15 members of the Human Rights Council
The General Assembly elected on the 21st of May 2008 15 States to serve three-year terms starting next month on the Human Rights Council, three of which will be sitting on the Geneva-based panel for the first time: Burkina Faso; Chile; and Slovakia.
After a single round of secret balloting, the Assembly re-elected the following 12 members: Argentina; Bahrain; Brazil; France; Gabon; Ghana; Japan; Pakistan; Republic of Korea; Ukraine; United Kingdom; and Zambia. The terms of office for all 15 members will begin on 20 June.
The Human Rights Council was created by the General Assembly in May 2006 (resolution 60/251) as the United Nations principal political human rights body. It replaced the much-criticized Commission on Human Rights (abolished in June 2006), and is composed of 47 elected Member States that must uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.
Based on equitable geographical distribution, seats are allocated to the five regional groups as follows: African Group, 13 seats; Asian Group, 13 seats; Eastern European Group, 6 seats; Latin American and Caribbean Group, 8 seats; and Western and Others Group, 7 seats.
The Council’s founding resolution called for its first 47 members to be directly elected by an absolute majority of votes in the 192-member Assembly. If Council members failed to uphold the highest human rights standards, they could be suspended by a two-thirds majority vote by Assembly members present at the meeting.
Also by that resolution, membership in the Council is open to all United Nations Member States. Council members will serve for a three-year period and will not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms. But the Assembly further decided that the terms of membership will be staggered, and that such a decision would be taken for the first election by drawing lots, taking into account equitable regional distribution.
In that connection, after electing the Commission’s inaugural membership in 2006, the Assembly drew lots to select, among the elected members in each regional group, those members who will serve for one year (18), two years (15) and three years (14), respectively. The 12 members re-elected today were serving one or two-year terms.
Adapted from GA press release GA/10710:
