UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization, condemned the election yesterday of serial human rights abusers - China, Russia, Turkey, Burundi and Chad - to the 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a top UN body that regulates human rights groups, oversees the UN women’s rights commission, and adopts resolutions on a vast array of global issues ranging from internet freedom to the treatment of prisoners.
“It’s like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “Electing repressive regimes like China, Russia and Turkey to a key UN council, which has the power to expel human rights groups from the UN, is a moral outrage, and shame on our democracies who were complicit.”
Neuer called on UN chief Antonio Guterres, UN rights chief Volker Türk and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to condemn the election of dictatorships to ECOSOC.
“Today’s election diminishes the credibility of the United Nations human rights system and casts a shadow upon the reputation of the organization as a whole,” Neuer said.
Russia won 115 votes, or 61% of those voting in the UN General Assembly ballot yesterday. Turkey won 174 votes (92%); China won 180 votes (95%); Chad won 183 votes (96%); Burundi won 184 votes (97%). Another 13 countries were also elected, including Lebanon, Mozambique and Norway.
UN Watch criticized the EU’s 28 member states, many of whom voted for China, Turkey, Burundi and Chad.
While the UN ballot was secret, the results show that only 9 of 189 UN states voting in the UN General Assembly declined to vote for China. “Consequently, at least 19 EU countries voted for Xi Jinping’s oppressive regime, which has a million Uighur Muslims locked up in camps.”
Likewise, only 15 countries declined to vote for Turkey, meaning at least 13 EU states voted for the Erdogan regime that has imprisoned opposition leaders and severely curtailed civil liberties. The EU even congratulated the Erodgan regime on its election.
A majority of at least 22 EU states voted for serial abusers Burundi and Chad.
ECOSOC is Key UN Organ Overseeing Human Rights Bodies
ECOSOC is the sole principal organ under the UN Charter mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
The body accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding which of them can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.
“This UN vote gives non-democracies malign influence at the world body. World leaders who failed to prevent it must now speak out for basic decency and morality in UN bodies,” said Neuer.
Importantly, ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the and the Executive Board of UN Women. As a result, it is more likely that misogynistic regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran will be elected again to the UN’s top bodies for the empowerment of women and gender equality.
As ECOSOC member, China, Russia and Turkey will also be voting for who gets to sit on the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the UN Commission for Social Development.
