Venezuela to Join U.N. Human Rights Council, Despite Track Record

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/world/americas/venezuela-united-nations-human-rights-council.html

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The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted to add Venezuela to its 47-member Human Rights Council, despite stringent opposition from activists denouncing the country’s human rights record under its president, Nicolás Maduro.

Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch, called the selection of Venezuela “a slap in the face to the country’s countless victims.”

Venezuela has been in a state of economic collapse for years, which has led to dangerous shortages of food, medication and electricity. Among other abuses, Mr. Maduro and his administration have been accused of withholding from the public humanitarian aid from other nations and of manipulating voters in exchange for food and medical care.

The United Nations’ own humanitarian affairs chief estimated this spring that about one-quarter of Venezuela’s population, or seven million people, were in need of humanitarian aid. Conditions there have caused millions of Venezuelans to flee the country, largely on foot.

Activists urged the General Assembly’s members to throw their support behind Costa Rica, which was competing with Venezuela and Brazil for two open Latin American and Caribbean seats on the council. But in Thursday’s vote, The Associated Press reported, Brazil won 153 votes and Venezuela 105 votes, while Costa Rica received 96.

“The UN General Assembly should recognize that electing serial rights abusers like Venezuela betrays the fundamental principles it set out when it created the Human Rights Council,” Mr. Bolopion wrote.

The Human Rights Council was established in 2006 to replace the United Nations’ beleaguered Human Rights Commission, which was largely discredited for allowing human rights abusers to be members. The council’s objective is to strengthen and protect human rights around the world and to address violations.

But the council, which admits members for staggered three-year terms, has also regularly been criticized, including for admitting members suspected of rights violations.

Other nations with a recent history of human-rights complaints were also elected to the council on Thursday — notably, Sudan, Libya and Mauritania, which joined Namibia in an uncontested race for the African region.

In Thursday’s vote, the General Assembly filled 14 open council seats. In one contested race, Iraq lost in the Asian group to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Marshall Islands. In another, Moldova lost in the Eastern Europe group to Armenia and Poland. In the Western European group, Germany and the Netherlands were admitted.

The United States left the council in June 2018, in protest of its frequent denunciations of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Iran, North Korea and Eritrea are the only other countries that refuse to participate.

In a statement on Thursday, Kelly Craft, the United States representative to the United Nations, condemned the vote, writing: “I am personally aggrieved that 105 countries voted in favor of this affront to human life and dignity. It provides ironclad proof that the Human Rights Council is broken and reinforces why the United States withdrew.”