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Belarus fails to win seat on UN rights assembly

Belarus, one of the world's most repressive states, was blocked on Thursday from gaining membership on the UN Human Rights Council after being outvoted in favor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a late entry.

Human rights groups had campaigned for weeks to head off the once seemingly assured choice of Belarus after the Eastern European group submitted only Belarus and Slovenia as candidates for the two seats from its region. Western countries persuaded Bosnia to enter last week, then lobbied General Assembly members vigorously to reject the bid by Belarus.

In the first round of voting, Slovenia won handily. Bosnia came in second and Belarus third, setting up a runoff that secured Bosnia's position. The decision avoided what would have been a serious embarrassment for the rights council, which in the past has inspired scorn for permitting countries like Cuba and Libya as members.

In its first year, the council has been criticized for its performance, especially for devoting its energies to denouncing one country, Israel, while bringing no action in cases like Darfur.

The US decided not to be a candidate for the council last year and again this year, saying it thought the body, while better than its predecessor, fell short of being credible and effective. There was also concern that given the hostility in the UN to US actions in Iraq, the US might not win a place if it ran.

Steve Crawshaw, the UN advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said his group had been particularly galvanized by the prospect of Belarus on the council.

"Belarus' track record is frankly appalling," he said. "It has no real civil society, no freedom of expression; its elections have been deemed absolutely not to be free or fair. There is no breathing space, and the UN special envoy to Belarus has been blocked from visiting the country."

Thursday's election in the General Assembly chose 14 new members for the Human Rights Council, which has 47 members and was formed last year to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission.

The countries elected were Angola, Bolivia, Bosnia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Italy, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Qatar, Slovenia and South Africa.

The only other contested race was for one of the Western European seats, where Italy defeated Denmark in a runoff.

Earlier this month, two watchdog groups, UN Watch and Freedom House, expressed disapproval of Angola, Egypt and Qatar, which won seats on Thursday. All of them, the two groups said, "are authoritarian regimes with negative UN voting records on rights issues and are not qualified to be council members."
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