US in tough contest for Human Rights Council seat

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The United States is competing with four Western countries for three seats on the Human Rights Council in the only contested election on the U.N.'s top human rights body.

The 193-member General Assembly is scheduled to vote Monday for 18 members of the 47-member council, and African, Asian, Eastern European and Latin American countries have put forward uncontested slates whose candidates are virtually certain of victory.

Several human rights groups have criticized a number of these candidates as unqualified because of their poor human rights records including Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Venezuela.

The five Western nations competing for seats ? the U.S., Germany, Greece, Ireland and Sweden ? were all deemed qualified by the rights groups.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-12-UN-Human%20Rights%20Council/id-98c562cf872a49cb8994e99de5be0be1

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