Pakistan failed to win a re-election to the top UN human rights body, gathering just 105 votes in the 193-member General Assembly. The General Assembly on October 28  elected 18 members of the UN Human Rights Council through a secret ballot. Pakistan’s current term at the council is set to expire on December 31 and it was seeking re-election to the 47-member Human Rights Council.

Pakistan also lost the seat in the Asia-Pacific category in which five seats were vacant.

The new members, who will start their three-year terms beginning January 1 next year, are Belgium, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Kenya, Panama, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Togo, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. India is also a member of the council and its term will end in 2017.

Members of the council are elected directly and individually by secret ballot by the majority of the members of the General Assembly. Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group UN Watch welcomed the defeat of Pakistan, terming it as a “major surprise” as it is an uncommon thrashing for the nation which has from the beginning played a dynamic at the UN.

Why it happened so??

Days before the vote, several human rights bodies had opposed the re-election of Venezuela, Pakistan and UAE to the UN Human Rights Council due to widespread criticism of these governments for outstandingly bad human rights violations.

Human Rights Foundations, and the Lantos Foundation, Pakistan, UAE, Burundi and Ecuador were cited by human rights groups for having committed serious violations of numerous articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including a check on the freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly, along with disregard for fundamental due process.