Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, 2 other African nations elected to UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday elected 15 new countries to serve on the Human Rights Council for three years.

Four of the 15 new members are from Africa – Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Malawi.

However, Peru and Russia failed to secure seats in the council.

After the ballots were counted, the President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, announced Albania, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Malawi, and the Netherlands were elected to serve in the council beginning from January 1, 2024.

China, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, France, and Malawi were re-elected for their second terms.

The Human Rights Council, the UN’s premier rights body, is tasked with the responsibility of upholding and advancing fundamental freedoms across the world.

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It was created in 2006 and consists of 47 member states elected via secret ballot by the majority of General Assembly members.

In order to ensure equitable geographical distribution, its seats are distributed among regional groups of states as follows: Africa (13), Asia-Pacific (13), Eastern Europe (6), Latin American and Caribbean (8); and Western Europe and others (7).

Malawi topped the voting for Africa with 182 votes, followed by Côte d’Ivoire (181), Ghana (179), Burundi (168), and Nigeria (3).

In Asia and the Pacific, Indonesia secured 186 votes, followed by Kuwait (183), Japan (175) and China (154).

In Eastern Europe, Bulgaria received 160 votes, followed by Albania (123), and Russia (83).

Russia was seeking re-election to the council after it resigned from the body on April 7, 2022.

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