The 192-member General Assembly recently held elections for new members of the Human Rights Council, the Geneva-based rights organization. Based on geographical distribution, member states get a three year term on the U.N.'s chief human rights deliberative body.
The United States was elected to serve on the Council. Good news, but here's the context. When the new body was set up in 2006, replacing the totally discredited former Commission on Human Rights, the Bush Administration opted not to participate. The new 47-member Council after all continued to have input from some of the world's leading human rights transgressors, so Washington argued to sit by the sidelines.
This time around, the Obama Administration decided to run. In an unopposed but secret ballot for the Western European and Other States category, the United States placed third; Norway gained 179 votes, Belgium 177 and the USA 167. While Washington is elated over its election, keep in mind that despite the secret ballot, or probably because of it, the U.S. still suffers from that "image problem."
Among the Asian States there was no competition for five seats and there were some interesting results. Jordan came in first with 178 votes, no doubt partly due to the prestige of King Abdullah in the Middle East. But the other four elected were Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia. Need I say more?
For the three seats in Latin America and the Caribbean, the unopposed seats went to Mexico, Uruguay and that all-time favorite Cuba. Interestingly, Castro's Cuba, despite getting the nod, received ten fewer votes than Uruguay, a genuine democracy.
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