Date: Thursday, 14 October 2021
In addition to the United States and Eritrea, Argentina, Honduras, Paraguay, Finland, Luxembourg, Benin, Cameroon, Gambia, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Lithuania were elected by majority (a minimum of 97 votes) and Montenegro.
Taking advantage of the absence of the United States, China and several of its partners, including Belarus and Venezuela, in recent years multiplied joint statements in support of Beijing's actions in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, and denounced the "violations of human rights "in Western countries, including those of Canadian indigenous peoples.
In Thursday's election, some NGOs accused regional groups of having presented the same number of candidates as there were vacancies - an "electoral farce" for UN Watch - and of failing to stop candidacies from authoritarian countries.
Based in Geneva, the Human Rights Council has a total of 47 members. The presence of authoritarian regimes that violate human rights has been the subject of criticism for years.
prh / af / yow