UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2019) Venezuela won a United Nations General Assembly vote on Thursday to become one of 14 new members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and will join the world body for a three-year term beginning on January 1, 2020.
According to the official results, 105 countries supported Venezuela's candidacy to take one of two Latin American seats that were contested in the vote.
The council's members serve for terms of three years, and membership is decided on the basis of equitable geographic distribution.
Thursday's elections for seats for the Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and Caribbean regions were the most competitive, with more candidates than available seats.
Brazil won the second available seat on the council for countries from Latin America, and along with Venezuela defeated Costa Rica's bid.
Venezuela and Brazil will be joined on the council� next year by 12 other newly elected members - Armenia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Libya, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Namibia, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea and Sudan.
The Council consists of 47 countries that are elected directly through a secret ballot by the majority of the members of the General Assembly for a period of three years. The General Assembly consists of 193 member states.
On Friday, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Roger Carstens said that the United States was trying to convince United Nations members not to elect Venezuela to the UNHRC.
In September, UNHRC announced its experts would head to Venezuela to probe reports of extrajudicial executions and torture there.
In June, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet visited Venezuela, where she met with President Nicolas Maduro and representatives of various political groups. On the results of the visit, Bachelet issued a report expressing her concerns over the critical healthcare and economic crises and the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
