US News
UN to elect new Human Rights Council members
By DPA
May 8, 2006, 19:00 GMT

New York - The new UN Human Rights Council is set to take shape Tuesday when members of the world body choose 47 countries to take part in its first session.

A total of 65 countries are vying for seats on the Geneva-based council, the top UN human rights body. It replaces the Human Rights Commission, widely viewed as discredited because countries accused of abuses regularly held seats on it.

The 191-nation UN General Assembly will elect members of the council, which is due to convene for the first time next month.

The 47 seats are to be divided among the world\'s five regions: 13 for Africa, 13 for Asia, six for Eastern Europe, eight for Latin America and the Caribbean, and seven for Western Europe and other states, including the United States and Canada.

The US, which opposed the establishment of the council when the l assembly created it in March, decided not to run this year. One reason given by Washington was that a US candidacy would have to compete with the nine Western European states for the seven seats.

The Western European candidates are Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and Britain.

A total of 18 Asian countries are running for 13 seats. Those countries include China, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Fourteen African countries are running for 13 seats. Russia, Romania, Hungary and Armenia are among the 13 countries fighting for six seats for Eastern Europe. The 11 Latin American and Caribbean states running for eight seats include Cuba, Mexico and Brazil.