How elections for the UN Human Rights Council work

Brazil is competing for a chair at the organ, for a further three-year mandate representing the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States

On 16 October, elections are taking place in New York for countries that wish to occupy a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council for the mandate running from January 2020 to December 2022. Brazil is a candidate for one of the two places devoted to Latin American and Caribbean countries and, if elected, will have the right to propose and vote on resolutions.

Find out more about how the Council works and about the history of Brazil’s participation in the organ:

 

 What is the UN Human Rights Council?

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system. Its role is to strengthen and promote the protection of human rights worldwide. The Council holds regular meetings at the UN headquarters in Geneva to tackle human rights violations and to make recommendations to states. The body has a mandate to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year.

The Council was created in 2006 and is made up of 47 United Nations Member-States, which are elected by the UN General Assembly. The Human Rights Council replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

When and where will the elections take place?

The elections for the Council will take place at the UN General Assembly, in New York, on 16 October.

Clean slate

Some groups deliberately present a number of candidates equal to the number of vacant seats. This practice is know as clean slate and is condemned by a number of organisations that monitor the dynamics of the Human Rights Council. 

Clean slate does not foster true competition for electing states that have the best proposals in the field of human rights. This had been the case of the group which Brazil belongs to. However, on 3 October, Costa Rica announced it would be running for one of the two vacant seats in the group. The country joined Brazil and Venezuela in the dispute for one of the seats. For this reason the choice of the Member-States of the group is no longer considered to be clean slate. 

Prior to this, the last time Member-States of the GRULAC (Latin American and Caribbean group) held a competitive election for the Human Rights Council was in 2016.

Read here the letter sent by Conectas to members of the GRULAC condemning this practice.

 

How the elections work 

Members of the Council are elected directly and individually by secret ballot at the UN General Assembly

The States place their votes in a ballot box and at the end, the number of votes for each candidate is added up

97

is the number of votes needed for a country to be elected

 

How many votes are needed to be elected?

When it is not a clean slate election, members of the Council are elected directly by absolute majority of votes, at the General Assembly, which is composed of 193 members, or 97 votes. 

Has there ever been a case in which a candidate did not have enough votes but it was a clean slate?

No, there has never been a case in the history of the Council elections, of a clean slate candidate receiving fewer than 97 votes and there is no provision in resolution 60/251 for this. 

There have been cases of messages being sent to certain countries by means of the elections, In 2016, Russia was one of three candidates for two seats in the East European Group. Because of the international community’s discontent with the situation in the Crimea and Russia’s role in the conflict in Syria, the country was not elected and gained fewer votes than Hungary and Croatia. Also, in 2016, Brazil was elected with fewer votes than Cuba, for example. 

Another situation that often occurs is that some countries that do not formally present their candidature can receive votes, not many, but it does happen.

What does a candidate country have to present in order to compete?

It is not obligatory to present any documentation to run for election, but it has become good practice to do so and currently, almost all the candidates put together a report for the United Nations, with the foundations and principles of the candidature, outlining voluntary pledges that will be assumed once they become a member of the Human Rights Council. These documents usually also provide a brief background to the current situation in terms of the protection and promotion of human rights in the country. 

Brazil’s documentation for its 2019 candidature can be accessed here.

According to UN regulations, what is expected of a Member-State?

According to resolution 60/251, Members who are elected to the Council must maintain the highest standards of promotion and protection of human rights, must cooperate fully with the Council and will be assessed by the mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review during the mandate.

After election can a Member be expelled or suspended?

Yes.  In line with resolution 60/251, the General Assembly can suspend the rights of a Member of the Council for serious, systematic human rights violations, with a majority of two thirds of the members present and voting.  In 2011, in an unprecedented initiative, the United Nations General Assembly suspended Libya’s participation in the Human Rights Council, expressing its profound concern with the situation in the country after the violent repression of anti-government protestors by Muammar Al-Gaddafi.

Brazil’s role in the Council

Brazil is one of the countries that has served most as a Member of the Council, with a total of four terms. As well as Brazil, the other countries with the most terms as Members are Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. 

Brazil participates in the group of countries that is handling discussions on the following resolutions in the Council: 

• Promotion and protection of human rights and the implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development 
• Right to adequate housing
• The right to privacy in the digital era
• Promotion of human rights through sport and the Olympic ideal
• Contribution to the implementation of the joint commitment to address and effectively combat the worldwide drug problem in terms of human rights.
• Human rights in the cities and other human settlements
• Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity
• Internet and human rights
• Negative impact of corruption on benefitting from human rights
• Access to medication in the context of the rights of all people to enjoy the highest possible standards of physical and mental health
• The protection of human rights in the context of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
• Incompatibility between racism and democracy
• Elimination of discrimination against people suffering from leprosy and their families
• Mental health and human rights
• Elderly people
• Promotion of international cooperation to support national systems for monitoring human rights, related processes and mechanisms and their contribution to the implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development
• Safety of journalists
• Technical cooperation and training in the area of human rights
• The full benefit of human rights for all women and girls and systemic integration from the perspective of gender in the implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development
• World Programme for Human Rights Education
• The rights of all people to benefit from the highest possible physical and mental health in the implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development