UN General Assembly elects 15 member states to the Human Rights Council

The UN General Assembly elected today 15 member states to the Human Rights Council. Albania, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Congo, El Salvador, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Nigeria, Paraguay, Portugal, Netherlands and Qatar were elected for a three years term, beginning on 1^st of January 2015.

The CETIM is involved since more than 20 years at the Human Rights Council because it considers it as a strategic space to advance the struggles and demands of social movements. The CETIM welcomes the election of Bolivia, a State with which we work closely on two priority issues: the adoption of a Declaration on the rights of peasants and control of transnational corporations with binding norms.It is worth noting that Botswana, Congo, India and Indonesia were already Members of the Human Rights Council and start a second consecutive term.

The Human Rights Council consists of 47 member states elected by the General Assembly for a period of three yeas. The membership is based on equitable geographical distribution and seats are distributed among regional groups, with 13 seats for the African Group, 13 for the Asia-Pacific group, 6 for the Eastern European Group, 8 for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean State and 7 for the Western European and Others Group.

Only those Member States have the right to vote when adopting the resolutions submitted to the Human Rights Council. They are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.  Each year the UN General Assembly allocates the vacant seats.

The membership of the Human Rights Council as from 1^st of January 2015 will be the following:

African Group : Algeria, Botswana, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leona and South Africa.

Asia-Pacific Group : Bangladesh, China, United Arab Emirates, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Viet nam

Eastern European Group: Albania, Estonia, Latvia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Russia,

Group of Latin American and Caribbean State: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela

Eastern European and Others Group: France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States and Portugal