UNGA to elect Saudi to Human Rights Council after Jordan's withdrawal

The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to elect Saudi Arabia next Tuesday to the 47-member Human Rights Council after Jordan announced the withdrawal of its candidacy, according UN sources on Wednesday. The Asia-Pacific states had five candidates - Saudi Arabia, Jordan, China, Maldives and Vietnam - running for four vacant seats. After Jordan's withdrawal, the other four will run unopposed and will easily win the elections. Saudi Arabia will join Kuwait, whose term in the Geneva-based Human Rights Council ends on December 2014 and the United Arab Emirates whose term ends by the end of 2015. The terms of Qatar, Libya and Mauritania in the Council will end later this year. The General Assembly elected Saudi Arabia to the Security Council on October 17. The following day, Riyadh rejected the seat citing a number of reasons, including the Council's double standards and failure to end conflicts. Russia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, representing the Eastern European States, also run unopposed for the two vacant seats. The same applies to France and the UK, representing Western European States, which run for the two vacant seats. The African States have five candidates - Algeria, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and South Sudan - running for four vacant seats. The Latin American and Caribbean States have three countries - Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay - running for two vacant seats. Human Rights Council members shall serve for a period of three years, beginning January 1, 2014, and shall not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms. The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations to rectify or avoid them.