The Human Rights Council is the principal human rights political body of the UN. The Council 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, it allocates seats to the 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.
To gain a seat on the Council for a three-year term, a state must achieve absolute majority support (97 votes) of the 192 members of the General Assembly. Members may seek immediate re-election once.
The terms of 18 members of the Human Rights Council come to an end on 19 June 2009:
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Germany, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Switzerland and Uruguay.
This year’s elections are planned for 12 May 2009. At the time of writing, the following countries are known to be candidates in the forthcoming elections:
* African Group (5 vacancies): Cameroon, Djibouti, Kenya, Mauritius, Senegal
* Asian Group (5 vacancies): Bangladesh, China, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia
* Eastern European Group (2 vacancies): Azerbaijan, Hungary, Russian Federation
* Latin American and Caribbean Group (3 vacancies): Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay
* Western and Others Group (3 vacancies): Belgium, Norway, USA
Amnesty International's recommendations
Amnesty International urges all UN Member States:
* To ensure a wide range of candidates, more numerous than the seats that are vacant for each region. The practice of presenting "clean slates", where the number of candidates matches exactly the number of seats available for the region, must be abandoned.
* To exclude vote-trading from these elections (the practice where countries are seeking support for their election in exchange for backing the requested state in other elections to UN bodies).
* To carefully consider each candidate’s human rights record and commitment to human rights, including as expressed in their voluntary election pledges, and to vote only for those candidates that meet the high standards set out in resolution 60/251, even if, in some instances, this means leaving the ballot blank.
In order to give full effect to the requirements of General Assembly resolution 60/251, Amnesty International urges all countries considering candidacy in the forthcoming elections:
* To make concrete, credible and measurable pledges to promote and protect human rights at the national and international levels, taking into account the Suggested Elements for Voluntary Pledges and Commitments by Candidates for Election to the Human Rights Council, prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
* To commit, in their pledges, to ratifications of core human rights treaties and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to the withdrawal of limiting reservations to such treaties and to full cooperation with the treaty monitoring bodies, including by submitting periodic reports on time and implementing the treaty body recommendations promptly and in full.
* To commit, in their pledges, to cooperate fully with the Human Rights Council's Special Procedures, including by responding promptly and substantively to their recommendations and by issuing a standing invitation to all Special Procedures.
* To commit to participate fully in the Universal Periodic Review, both as reviewed and reviewing country, to ensure that each review is focused on the improvement of the situation of human rights at the national level, and to the full and prompt implementation of the recommendations accepted during the Review.
* To declare their candidacy at least 30 days in advance of the elections planned for 12 May 2009.
Read more:
2009 Elections to the Human Rights Council: All candidates must demonstrate solid commitment to human rights (08 April 2009)
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