RP wins seat on UN rights body

Despite calls to reject the Philippines’ candidacy, the country yesterday won a seat on the new 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council.

The Philippine mission to the United Nations reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday that the Philippines received the votes of 136 of the 191 UN member states — more than the absolute majority of 96 votes required to secure a seat in the UN’s top human rights body.

The Philippines’ permanent representative to the UN, Lauro Baja Jr., said the country’s election speaks well of the country’s human rights record as the UN General Assembly resolution establishing the Council requires member states to "take into account the contribution of candidate-countries to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments thereto when casting their ballots."

"Our election is a telling testimonial from the member states of the United Nations and the international community on human rights in the Philippines," Baja said. "We are gratified to note that the goodwill and respect the Philippines gained through our participation in the Security Council live on."

Baja also said UN member-states are under no obligation to elect a candidate that does not demonstrate the necessary commitment to protect and promote human rights, regardless of how many ballots are required to fill all seats on the UN Human Rights Council.

"Our election rounds (out) our role in the three pillars of the United Nations in the 21st century," Baja said.

"On security, we attained our niche through our participation in the Security Council and our initiative on interfaith cooperation for peace; on development, through our initiatives on debt conversion into Millennium Development Goals projects and on migration; and on human rights and rule of law, through this election and our forthcoming participation in the Council," he said.

Manila announced its candidacy for a seat in the UN Human Rights Council two weeks after the adoption of a resolution establishing the Geneva-based body, which resulted in other diplomatic missions getting a headstart in their campaigns.

According to Baja, 65 countries made a bid for the 47 available seats in the UN rights council.

The Philippine mission launched an intense and personal campaign in New York while the different foreign service posts and the DFA supported the move.

"We were also able to contain fall-outs from political noises coming from the country as well as negative reports from some non-governmental organizations," Baja said.

The Philippine mission emphasized in its campaign that the country, as a founding member of the UN, was instrumental to the inclusion of "self-determination" and "independence" into the UN Charter, which helped countries under colonial rule gain independence and achieve UN membership.

Baja said the Philippines also has a long tradition of promoting and protecting human rights having been a member of the defunct Commission on Human Rights for 41 years. Manila last sat on the commission in 2000.

He said the Philippine mission also emphasized that the country is a party to all of the seven core international rights instruments and leads the advocacy for the establishment of a regional human rights mechanism in Southeast Asia.