Human rights groups criticize uncontested election of 15 countries to top UN human rights body

Human rights organizations strongly condemned the recent uncontested election of 15 members to the United Nations' highest human rights body. The criticism centered around the fact that the election resulted in countries with poor human rights records being awarded seats on the 47-nation Human Rights Council. The allocation of positions to the U.N.'s regional groups aimed at ensuring geographical representation led to the second consecutive year of all regional groups submitting the exact number of candidates for the available seats for the three-year term.

Consequently, there were no competitive races in Tuesday's election, held in the 193-member General Assembly. Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, stated that "this uncompetitive vote makes a mockery of the word 'election.'" He urged U.N. member nations to "insist on competitive slates so they can reject candidates with poor human rights records."

In the 2021 election, the Africa group's Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Burundi were elected, while the Asia-Pacific group's Kuwait, Nepal, and Jordan secured positions.