India Elected to the UN's Most Influential Human Rights Council with the Largest Number of Voices

United Nations: India was elected Friday with the largest number of votes to the influential Human Rights Council, with a commitment to fight intolerance.

India received 188 votes, the highest among the 18 countries elected in the vote.

This is the fifth time that India has been elected to the Geneva-based Council, the main body of the UN charged with promoting and monitoring human rights.

India's presence on the Council will be important because the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, has asked this body to facilitate the creation of the United Nations. an international commission of inquiry into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir.

His successor, Michelle Bachelet, and the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, supported Zeid's recommendation, for which Pakistan – a member of the Council – is campaigning.

So far, no other country has supported Zeid's call to the investigation.

Bangladesh, which is at the forefront of addressing the Rohingya crisis, was also elected with 178 votes to the Council to fill one of the five vacant posts in the Asia-Pacific region for a three-year term.

The regional group approved five countries, which corresponds to the number of seats open in this year's elections, and they were the only countries on the ballot. Other regional candidates were Bahrain, Fiji and the Philippines.

Thirteen other countries representing the other four regions were also elected to the Council.

In January, India will join China and Nepal, in addition to Pakistan, which was elected to the Council of 47 members from previous years for a three-year term.

When it came to the Council, India presented its position of "the world's largest democracy (and) the secular politics of India".

It is committed to continuing to support international efforts to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

In its nomination pledge, India also introduced a broader human rights approach focusing on climate justice, health, and poverty reduction.

India was part of the first group of 47 countries elected to the Council in 2006, shortly after its inception, and received an initial one-year term instead of three in order to facilitate the creation of a new one. alternate vacancy list each year.

He was again elected in 2007, 2011 and 2014 for a three-year term.

Countries can only be elected for two consecutive terms and India has taken a one year break at the end of its term in 2017.

The elections were held by secret ballot at the 193-member General Assembly on Friday, although the number of candidates from the five regions corresponds to the number of vacant posts, making it a formality.

Of the 47 members of the Council, seats are allocated on the basis of a "fair regional distribution", giving the Asia-Pacific region a total of 13 seats, some of which must be elected each year.

The African region also has 13 seats, while the Eastern European region has six, Western Europe and seven others, and that of Western Europe. Latin America and the Caribbean eight.

The United States withdrew from the Council earlier this year after their permanent representative, Nikki Haley, questioned its legitimacy because of the presence of several dictatorial regimes violating human rights.