PHL elected anew to UN's human rights body

The Philippines was again elected for a three-year term to the United Nations' top human rights body, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Saturday. The DFA said the Philippines garnered the second highest number of votes after Indonesia, at the UN Human Rights Council elections held during the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in New York last Friday. "The country's election to a new term in the [council] is a clear indication of the appreciation and confidence of the international community in the significant gains in our human rights record," Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement. Meanwhile, Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, noted that the Philippines has now a "vibrant" democracy that resulted from 1986 EDSA Revolution. This is the third time the Philippines has been elected to a seat in the council. The first was during the council's inaugural session in 2006 and the second was for the term 2007 to 2010. The other 14 countries elected to the human rights body were Indonesia, India, Kuwait, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Congo, Benin, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Czech Republic, Romania, Austria, and Italy. The 47-member council was created in March 2006 to replace the UN's widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission. The council, however, has also been widely criticized for failing to change many of the commission's practices, including electing candidates accused of serious human rights violations. — JE/LBG, GMA News