(Geneva) Fiji was elected head of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, which for the first time in its history was forced to vote, by secret ballot, to appoint a president.
Posted on January 15, 2021 at 7:17 a.m.
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“Having obtained the greatest number of votes [29 sur 47, NDLR], the following candidate was elected President of the Human Rights Council […] : Her Excellency the Permanent Representative of Fiji Nazhat Shameem Khan, ”said the Sudanese representative, who oversaw the election.
Normally, the presidency of the Human Rights Council, which is mainly a procedural office, is determined by consensus to ensure an annual rotation by changing geographical area.
But this year, Asia-Pacific, whose turn it was, could not get along.
Fiji Ambassador to Geneva Nazhat Shameem Khan seemed to have the game won, but at the start of December, Bahrain presented its own candidate, Ambassador Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri.
According to observers, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries did not want Fiji’s candidate and managed to find other candidates.
A Chinese diplomat denied that his country opposed Fiji’s candidacy or asked others to do so. He regretted that for the first time a regional group was unable to agree on a candidate.
Faced with the opposition of these two candidates, a third threw himself into the arena, the Uzbek ambassador in Geneva Ulugbek Lapasov.
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