RIYADH – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday won a seat at the Human Rights Council, the UN's highest rights monitoring body. The General Council has 193 members and Saudi Arabia won 140 votes. The General Assembly elected 14 new members to the 47-seat Geneva-based Council, which can shine a spotlight on rights abuses by adopting resolutions – when it chooses to do so. It also has dozens of special monitors watching problem countries and major issues ranging from executions to drone strikes. China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba and Algeria, Britain, France, the Maldives, Macedonia, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa were also elected to three-year terms. Seats, allotted by region, are sometimes contested and sometimes not. All 193 members of the General Assembly can vote by secret ballots, which were collected in wooden ballot boxes from delegates.The losers in Tuesday's balloting were Uruguay, beaten by Cuba and Mexico for seats in the Latin America and Caribbean group; and South Sudan, which failed to get enough votes to win one of the four African seats. The US is among the current members of the Council. – SG/Agencies
