Russia was defeated in its bid to regain a seat in the United Nations premiere human rights body by a significant majority in Tuesday's election in the General Assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia competed against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council representing the East European regional group.
In the secret ballot vote, Bulgaria got 160 votes, Albania got 123 votes and Russia just 83 votes.
In Tuesday's election, the only other competitive race was in the Latin America and Caribbean group where Cuba, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Peru were competing for three seats. Peru was the loser.
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The other regional races were not competitive. China, Japan, Kuwait and Indonesia were elected to represent the Asia group. Burundi, Malawi, Ghana and Ivory Coast were elected to hold four African seats. And France and the Netherlands will take two Western seats.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace a commission discredited because of some members' poor rights records. But the new council soon faced similar criticism, including that rights abusers sought seats to protect themselves and their allies.
The council reviews the human rights records of all countries periodically, appoints independent investigators to examine and report on issues like torture and situations in countries like North Korea and Iran. It also sends fact-finding missions to investigate rights violations, including in Ukraine.
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Under the council's rules, its 47 seats are allocated to regional groups to ensure geographical representation. Members are elected yearly by the General Assembly for staggered three-year terms that begin Jan 1.
In last year's election, Venezuela, South Korea and Afghanistan lost contested races, but countries including Vietnam and Sudan, which have been accused of having abysmal human rights records, won seats.
