United Nations: India seems to get elected to get elevated to the United Nations’ top human rights body in the Asia-Pacific category for a total period of three years.

The 193-member UN General Assembly is all set to go through the election process to elect new member to the UN Human Rights Council today. The members to the body are elected by absolute majority done through a secret ballot. Countries who are selected need to get at least 97 votes to get elected to the Council.

India is all set to vie the seat from the Asia-Pacific category. Other countries trying to stake a claim in the same regional group apart from India are Bahrain, Fiji, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Despite there are a total of five nations vying for five seats in the Asia-Pacific category, there is high certainty that India gets elected to the council.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had posted a tweet ahead of the election saying “Pitching together. Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji, India & the Philippines stake claim to 5 seats for Asia-Pacific region at Human Rights Council elections.”

The newly elected members will have the opportunity to serve a term of total three years that begins from January 1, 2019. Previously, India has been elected to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council for the periods of 2011-2014 and 2014-2017 terms. The last tenue of India had ended up on December 31, 2017 and as per the rules, India was not eligible for consecutive re-election since it had already served two consecutive terms.

The Human Rights Council comprises a total of 47 elected Member states, which was created by the Assembly in March 2006 as the principal United Nations body dealing with human rights issues around the globe.

Council seats are allocated to the five regional groups as per the equitable geographical distribution: Asia-Pacific, 13 seats; African States, 13 seats, Latin American and Caribbean States, 8 seats, Eastern European States, 6 seats; and Western European and other States, 7 seats.

All the regional groups of the General Assembly have submitted competition-free slates, which implies that all candidates, irrespective of their rights records, are virtually assured of seats on the council.

As there are a total of 18 countries vying for a total of 18 seats across five geographical groups, they are all expected to be elected without any opposition. In the African States category, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Togo, Somalia are vying for five seats and for the Eastern European States group, Bulgaria and Czech Republic are vying for two seats. In the Latin American & Caribbean States group, Argentina, Uruguay and Bahamas are vying for three seats and regarding the Western European & other States category, Austria, Denmark and Italy are seeking the three vacant seats.

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