Venezuela was excluded on Tuesday from the most important United Nations body on human rights after a vote in the United Nations that favored Costa Rica and Chile to occupy two seats that the three countries contested.
Venezuela won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in 2019 and hoped to keep it after Tuesday’s elections of all 193 UN member states. Representing Latin America, on the other hand, there were only two vacant seats, which on Tuesday won Costa Rica and Chile.
The Chilean candidacy got 144 votes, the Costa Rican 134 and the 88 Venezuelans in the elections held at the United Nations General Assembly. In total, 14 new members were elected to the Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva and is made up of 47 nations.
Numerous human rights groups had called in the days leading up to the vote that Venezuela not be chosen because of what they see as a story of repression carried on by the government of Nicolás Maduro.
“The brutal attack on opponents in Venezuela makes the country I don’t have the credentials to belong to the highest rights body in the United Nations, ” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director of Human Rights Watch, in a statement released recently by the organization.
A total of 17 countries have applied to fill the 14 seats on the Council for the period 2023-2025.
The UN General Assembly urges states that vote to elect Council members to “take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights.”
Source: AP
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Source: Clarin
