Egypt Elected To U.N Rights Council

UPDATE: Check out the new blog covering the Mid East: Outsider On The Inside



Egypt has been elected to a new Rights Council in the U.N, created in order to replace the heavily criticized Human Rights Commission, despite the numerous recorded abuses of its' citizens:

Human rights groups had called on the General Assembly to vote against Belarus as well as Egypt, Qatar and Angola, countries which have been cited for poor human rights records. However, those three countries were running uncontested, and easily gained passage to the council.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he was generally pleased with the results.

"I was particularly heartened by the election of Bosnia, and congratulate the Bosnians," he said. "This bodes well for the reform of the Human Rights Council that is very much needed."

The Human Rights council was created in 2006, replacing the largely discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission. One aim of the new council is to keep chronic human rights abusers off its roster.

So they failed at the first thing they aimed to do. Just a few examples of Egypt's distinguished human rights record:

Ayman Nour Assaulted In Prison: Wife
Military Tribunals For Citizens
Egyptian Bloggers Detained
Egyptian Executive Control
Torture In Egypt

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