Fiji elected into United Nations Human Rights Council

By Vijay Narayan

13/10/2018

Delegates attend a session of United Nations Human Rights Council [Photo: Foreign Policy]

Fiji has been elected into the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This is United Nations' top human rights body and Fiji will serve for a period of three years beginning January 1, 2019, getting 187 votes in the Asia‑Pacific category, the second highest number of votes among all candidates.

The 193‑member UN General Assembly held elections for new members to the UN Human Rights Council last night. The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot. Countries needed a minimum of 97 votes to get elected to the Council.

In order to get on to the council all candidates needed a minimum of 97 votes.

Fiji had 187 votes with only India exceeding us by 1 vote and we got the greatest number of votes than any of the Western European groups.

The Fijian delegation says this shows the level of confidence that the member states of the UN have in Fiji .

They say Fiji received an unprecedented level of support from Civil Society Groups which supported Fiji's candidacy.

The delegation took part in a pledging event in Geneva with civil society including Amnesty international and the International Service for Human Rights and in that pledging event Fiji opened itself up to scrutiny and answered questions on our human rights record and priorities for membership.

#UNGA has elected 18 countries to Human Rights Council: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eritrea, Togo, Somalia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Philippines, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Argentina, Bahamas, Uruguay, Austria, Denmark, Italy: https://t.co/dNhdccroj3 #StandUp4HumanRights pic.twitter.com/3JudLyZ8LR
— United Nations (@UN) October 12, 2018

The breakdown of votes by categories :

Asia Pacific Group

Valid: 193

Abst 1

192 voting

1. India 188

2. Fiji 187

3. Bangladesh 178

4. Bahrain 165

5. Philippines 165

African Group

193 valid

1 abst

192 votes

1. Burkina Faso 183

2. Togo181

3. Cameroon176

4. Somalia 170

5. Eritrea 160

Eastern European

Valid 193

Abst 5

Voting 188

1. Bulgaria 180

2. Czech Republic 178

Latin America

Valid 193

Abst 4

189 present and voting

1. Bahamas 180

2. Uruguay 177

3. Argentina 172

Western Europe

Valid 193

Abst 4

Voting 189

1. Italy 180

2. Austria 171

3. Denmark 167

4. USA 1

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