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US returns to UN Human Rights Council

The council is comprised of 47 countries, including Russia, with one third of members being re-elected every year

UNITED NATIONS, October 14. /TASS/. The UN General Assembly elected representatives of 18 states as members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, including the US, who withdrew from the Council in 2018.

The election was uncontested, and all candidates passed into the Council, those being the US, Cameroon, Eritrea, Gambia, Benin, Somali, Qatar, UAE, Kazakhstan, India, Malaysia, Argentina, Paraguay, Honduras, Luxembourg, Finland, Lithuania, and Montenegro.

The Human Rights Council is comprised of 47 countries, including Russia, with one third of members being re-elected every year.

The US’s candidacy was supported by 168 countries, with 97 required to pass.

"If elected we will fully participate in the Council’s work of protecting and promoting human rights. Our goals are clear: stand with human rights defenders and speak out against violations and abuses of human rights," US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in her Twitter ahead of the election.

The US first joined the Council of Human Rights in 2009. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump declared the withdrawal from the Council. Joe Biden announced the restoration of Washington’s work with the Council after he assumed the presidential office in January 2021; however, the US had to wait for the elections that traditionally take place in October.

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