Chile and Costa Rica were elected this Tuesday (11) as new members of the UN Human Rights Council, leaving out Venezuela, which applied for one of the two vacancies open for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Chilean candidacy received 144 votes, the Costa Rican candidate received 2025 , while the Venezuelan got 47, in the elections held at the United Nations General Assembly, which defined ) new members of the body for the period from 2023 to 2025.
Venezuela, which was currently on the Council, was seeking reelection, while several human rights groups campaigned against the country, due to the history of repression of the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship.
The UN director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Louis Charbonneau, celebrated that the General Assembly “closed the door” on Venezuela and recalled that there is evidence that Maduro and other high-ranking officials level of the Executive are responsible for crimes against humanity.
“A government that faces these kinds of accusations should not have a seat in the highest UN rights body”, said the NGO representative after the vote. .
The United Nations Independent International Mission to Venezuela last month accused the country’s civil and military intelligence agencies (Sebin and Dgcim, respectively) of crimes against humanity by repressing political opposition , through abuses ordered “at the highest level”.
In a report, experts described, among other things, the torture and ill-treatment suffered by dozens of people in the detention centers of the Venezuelan intelligence.
In addition, the Human Rights Council itself approved last week, with the opposition of the Maduro government, to continue investigating and documenting violations in the country.
Chile and Costa Rica will join the Council in January of next year, which is composed of 47 members, and will join the Latin Americans Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay.
In the Asia and Pacific group, those elected this Tuesday On Monday were Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives and Vietnam, which left out South Korea – which was seeking re-election -, and Afghanistan – whose seat at the UN remains in the hands of the government overthrown by the Taliban.
A The Vietnamese candidacy was one of the most questioned by human rights groups, which denounced the suppression of basic civil and political rights in the country.
The organizations also opposed the vote in Afghanistan, where violations of women’s and children’s rights are systematic.
In the rest of the regional blocs, the candidacies were presented without opposition, with the vote being practically a protocol procedure.
In Africa, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco and Sudan were chosen; in Eastern Europe, Georgia and Romania; and in Western Europe, Germany and Belgium.
The Human Rights Council was created in 2006, replacing the Human Rights Commission, which was extinguished after 60 years of work, due to the crisis of legitimacy that became pivotal, after decisions seen as partial, politicized and unbalanced.