IHRC welcomes Ireland’s election to Human Rights Council.
The IHRC has welcomed the election yesterday in the UN General Assembly of Ireland with 18 other States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations key forum for tackling entrenched human rights concerns around the world.
The IHRC stated that its election would allow Ireland play a key role in upholding human rights protection around the world including in strengthening the key mandates of Special Procedures such as the Rapporteurs on Torture, on Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; on Arbitrary Detention, on Extreme poverty and human rights, on Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; on Violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. These Special Procedures regularly engage with National Human Rights Institutions and civil society organisations across the world.
Those elected yesterday were Argentina, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Montenegro, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Venezuela. All will serve three-year terms beginning on 1 January 2013.
Of those elected, Côte d’Ivoire, Estonia, Ethiopia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela will be sitting for the first time. Re-elected for an additional term was the United States, while Argentina, Brazil, Gabon, Germany, Japan, Pakistan and the Republic of Korea had served previous non-consecutive terms.
Created by the General Assembly in May 2006 (resolution 60/251) as the principal United Nations political body dealing with human rights, the Council replaced the Commission on Human Rights and comprises 47 elected Member States that are pledged to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights. On the basis of equitable geographical distribution, Council seats are allocated to the five regional groups as follows: African Group, 13 seats; Asian Group, 13 seats; Eastern European Group, 6 seats; Latin American and Caribbean Group, 8 seats; and the Western and Others Group, 7 seats.