US set to rejoin UN Human Rights Council

GENEVA: The United States is returning to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) three-and-a-half years after its dramatic walkout as China seized the opportunity to assert wider influence.

The United Nations General Assembly elects new members of the UN’s top rights body on Thursday (today), with countries kicking off their three-year council term from January 1.

Though member states are chosen in a secret ballot, the election is a non-contest, with 18 candidate countries standing for 18 seats. The council is tasked with strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide, addressing violations and making recommendations.

The US under previous president Donald Trump quit the council in 2018, accusing it of hypocrisy and obsession with Israel. As Washington returns under President Joe Biden, it will come face to face with an emboldened China that took advantage of the US absence to flex its muscles.

In recent years, China and its partners, including Belarus and Venezuela, have issued joint statements supporting Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, and denouncing “human rights violations” in Western countries, including against indigenous Canadians.

Faced with growing polarisation, there are concerns that Washington’s return will reinforce the trend and see the council dominated by pro-US and pro-Chinese rivalry.

READ MORE: UN Human Rights Council ends Yemen war crimes probe

China’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Chen Xu, told reporters on Wednesday that he hoped Washington would “conduct a constructive dialogue and try not to make human rights a political vehicle” once back on the council.

The council in Geneva is made up of 47 member states elected by the UN General Assembly in New York. A third of the council is elected every year and countries can only serve for two consecutive three-year terms.

The membership is split proportionally by geographic regions. Eritrea’s appearance among Africa’s nominees has raised the question of authoritarian regimes with poor rights records taking a seat on the council.

In June, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, the new UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in Eritrea, painted a bleak picture in his first report to the council. There was no sign of improvement, he said, pointing to arbitrary and incommunicado detention, inhumane prison conditions, lack of basic freedoms, and indefinite military service, where conscripts are subjected to forced labour and sexual violence.

The Geneva director of Human Rights Watch, John Fisher, said the regions had a responsibility to make sure their candidates met the minimum standards, pointing the finger at nominees like Eritrea, Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates.