Bahrain hopeful of rights council seat
By MANDEEP SINGH
Published: 8th May 2008
BAHRAIN stands a good chance of being elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a top official said yesterday. “We have had a very good Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recently and in light of that, we have a bright chance,” said Permanent Representative of Bahrain to UN Industrial Development Organisation, Geneva, Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla.
He said Bahrain’s UN team was campaigning for a seat on the council in both Geneva and New York
Bahrain hopeful of rights council seat
By MANDEEP SINGH
Published: 8th May 2008
BAHRAIN stands a good chance of being elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a top official said yesterday. “We have had a very good Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recently and in light of that, we have a bright chance,” said Permanent Representative of Bahrain to UN Industrial Development Organisation, Geneva, Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla.
He said Bahrain’s UN team was campaigning for a seat on the council in both Geneva and New York
The 192-member UN General Assembly will vote on May 21 in New York.
Mr Abdulla was responding to criticism by two human rights groups opposing its candidature to the council, describing it as “unwarranted and unfounded”.
Freedom House and UN Watch said on Tuesday that Bahrain and four other countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Gabon and Zambia, vying for seats on the council, had failed to protect human rights and should be disqualified from membership.
“In the end, it is going to be held by secret ballot,” said Mr Abdulla.
“Anything can happen, but we are sure we are going to make it.”
He said if elected, Bahrain would have a full three-year term on the council.
“We were members on the first council when it was formed two years ago, but due to the rotation process, we then served a one-year term.”
The Geneva-based council is composed of regional groups that give dominance to Africa and Asia, each with 13 countries.
If they vote as a 26-member bloc, they have an automatic majority.
Western Europe and North America together are represented by seven countries.
The General Assembly will elect 15 members to the 47-member council – four each from Africa and Asia, three from Latin America, and two each from Eastern Europe and Western nations.
Candidates must get at least 97 votes – an absolute majority – to win.
Six candidates – Bahrain, East Timor, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea and Sri Lanka – are vying for four Asian seats.
UN Watch had said in its report that the countries lent international credibility to repressive governments and that they routinely violated the rights of their own citizens.
Freedom House said some of the contestants had a “questionable” human rights record.
The council was created in March 2006 to replace the widely-discredited and highly-politicised Human Rights Commission. One aim was to keep some of the worst human rights offenders out of its membership.
However, it has still been widely criticised for failing to change many of the commission’s practices, including putting much more emphasis on Israel than on any other country. mandeep@gdn.com.bh
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