18 May 2006
South Africa has been voted a member of the United Nation's new Human Rights Council, with 179 of the 191 countries on the UN General Assembly voting for SA's membership of the revamped, more powerful UN organ.
The 47 founding members of the new Human Rights Council were voted in at the UN's 60th General Assembly in New York last week
The new council, replacing the often criticised Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights, will address violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and promote effective coordination and mainstreaming of human rights issues within the UN system.
Africa and Asia each hold 13 of the 47 seats on the council, while Eastern European countries hold six, Latin American and Caribbean countries hold eight, and Western European and other countries hold seven seats.
General Assembly president Jan Eliasson of Sweden, describing the launch of the council as a new beginning for the promotion and protection of human rights, said the the council's first members would play a crucial role, as they would take its first decisions.
According to a UN statement, the General Assembly, when voting, took into account "the contribution of the candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto."
If any council member fails to uphold the highest human rights standards, they can be suspended by a two-thirds majority vote by the General Assembly.
Speaking after the election on behalf of the African group, Zambia's representative said one challenge for the founding members would be to adopt a new agenda and working methods that reflected the importance of the right to development, as well as moral human rights issues such as the eradication of poverty and under-development.
Council members should aim to create a stronger, more efficient and less politicised organization that could respond promptly in cases of human rights abuses in any part of the world, he said.
The African group believed the council would not be a "case of old wine in a new bottle," he added, but would fulfil the aspirations of the international community.
Of the African members, it was decided that South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria would serve on the council for one year; Ghana, Zambia, Mali and Gabon for two years; and Djibouti, Cameroon, Senegal, Mauritius and Nigeria for three years.
The council holds its inaugural meeting in Geneva on 19 June.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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