US Elected to the UN Human Rights Council

On Tuesday, the United States won election to the UN Human Rights Council. The Obama Administration ended the US policy of boycotting it. (Previous posts on criticism of the Human rights Council are here and here.)

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Washington still believed the body was flawed, but added: "We are looking forward to working from within with a broad cross-section of member states to strengthen and reform the Human Rights Council."

Hillel Neuer of Geneva-based group UN Watch said the presence of China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia on the council would result in "the foxes guarding the chickens." He said the council's credibility was at stake over its failure to hold an emergency session over the bloody fighting in Sri Lanka.

Steve Crawshaw of New York-based Human Rights Watch welcomed U.S. council membership but criticized its uncontested election. "The message that was understood around the world ... (was) that somehow elections without competition make sense," he said.