A/67/PV.34 General Assembly

Pursuant to General Assembly decision 42/450 of 17 December 1987 and upon nomination by the Economic and Social Council, the Assembly elects the members of the Committee for Programme and Coordination. The Assembly has before it document A/67/125/Rev.1, which contains the nominations by the Economic and Social Council to fill the vacancies in the Committee that will occur as a result of the expiration on 31 December 2012 of the terms of office of the Comoros, France, Haiti, Israel, Namibia, the Russian Federation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. These States are eligible for immediate re-election. I should like to remind members that, after 1 January 2013, the following States will remain members of the Committee: Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Belarus, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Moldova, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. Therefore, these 23 States are not eligible in this election. I should now like to inform members that the following States have been nominated by the Economic and Social Council: Botswana and the United Republic of Tanzania for the two seats among the African States; the Russian Federation for the one seat among the Eastern European States; Peru for one of the two seats among the Latin American and Caribbean States; and France for one of the two seats among the Western European and other States. In accordance with rule 92 of the rules of procedure, all elections shall be held by secret ballot and there shall be no nominations. However, I should like to recall paragraph 16 of General Assembly decision 34/401, whereby the practice of dispensing with the secret ballot for elections to subsidiary organs when the number of candidates corresponds to the number of seats to be filled should become standard, unless a delegation specifically requests a vote on a given election. In the absence of such a request, may I take it that the Assembly decides to proceed to the election on the basis of dispensing with the secret ballot?

The number of States nominated from among the African States, the Eastern European States, the Latin American and Caribbean States and the Western European and other States is equal to or less than the number of seats to be filled in each of those groups. May I therefore take it that the Assembly wishes to declare those States nominated by the Economic and Social Council — Botswana, France, Peru, the Russian Federation and the United Republic of Tanzania — elected members of the Committee for Programme and Coordination for a three-year term of office beginning on 1 January 2013?

I congratulate the States that have just been elected members of the Committee for Programme and Coordination. Members are reminded that the Economic and Social Council postponed the nomination of one member from the Latin American and Caribbean States and one member from the Western European and other States for election for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 2013. The General Assembly will be in a position to act on these vacancies upon nomination by the Economic and Social Council. We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 110. (d) Election of 18 members of the Human Rights Council

The General Assembly will now proceed with the election of 18 members of the Human Rights Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 2012. The 18 outgoing members are Bangladesh, Belgium, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Hungary, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, the United States of America and Uruguay. In accordance with paragraph 7 of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, these Member States are eligible for immediate re-election, except those that have served two consecutive terms, namely, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Jordan, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Uruguay. The 18 vacant seats should be distributed among the regional groups as follows: five seats for the African States; five seats for the Asia-Pacific States; two seats for the Eastern European States; three seats for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and three seats for the Western European and other States. In accordance with resolution 60/251, membership in the Council shall be open to all States Members of the United Nations, and the members of the Council shall serve for a period of three years. The members of the Council shall be elected directly and individually, by secret ballot, by the majority of the members of the General Assembly. Accordingly, 97 votes constitute a majority in the General Assembly, which has a membership of 193 States. In accordance with paragraphs 4 and 5 of resolution 65/281 of 17 June 2011, beginning in 2013, the Human Rights Council will start its yearly membership cycle on 1 January and, as a transitional measure, the period of office of members of the Human Rights Council ending in June 2012, June 2013 and June 2014 has been exceptionally extended until the end of the respective calendar year. The following States will continue to be members of the Human Rights Council: Angola, Austria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Chile, Congo, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and Uganda. The names of these States, therefore, should not appear on the ballot papers. The election will be held in accordance with the relevant rules of procedure of the General Assembly on elections. For this election, rules 92 and 94 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly shall be applied. Consistent with the practice of the General Assembly, if more than the required number of Member States have obtained the votes of the majority of the members of the Assembly on the same ballot, those Member States that have obtained the largest number of votes above the required majority will be considered as elected, up to the number of seats to be filled. Also, consistent with past practice, in case due to a tie vote it should become necessary to determine one candidate to be elected or that will proceed to the next round of restricted balloting, there will be a special restricted ballot limited to those candidates that have obtained an equal number of votes. May I take it that the General Assembly agrees to those procedures?

Accordingly, the election shall be held by secret ballot and there shall be no nominations. Again, I should like to repeat that the 18 vacant seats are to be filled from among the regional groups as follows: five seats from among the Group of African States, five seats from among the Group of Asia-Pacific States, two seats from among the Group of Eastern European States, three seats from among the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, and three seats from among the Group of Western European and other States. The ballot papers reflect that pattern. In addition, I have been informed by the Secretariat that the voluntary pledges and commitments made by Member States in accordance with paragraph 8 of resolution 60/251 were accordingly issued as official documents of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly. Before we begin the voting process, I should like to remind members that, pursuant to rule 88 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, no representative shall interrupt the voting except on a point of order on the actual conduct of the voting. We shall now begin the voting process. Ballot papers marked “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and “E” will now be distributed. Each ballot paper is assigned to one of the five regional groups and has the corresponding number of blank lines for the seats assigned to that region. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers and to write on them the names of the States for which they wish to vote. A ballot paper containing more names from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it will be declared invalid. A ballot will also be declared invalid if all the names of the Member States on that ballot do not belong to the relevant region. If a ballot paper of a region includes both the names of Member States that belong to and that are from outside of that region, the ballot remains valid but only the names of the Member States that belong to the relevant region will be counted. If a ballot paper contains names of Member States that are not eligible for re-election or that are currently members of the Council, the ballot remains valid but those names will not be counted.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group A — African States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 2 Number of members voting: 191 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Gabon 187 Côte d’Ivoire 183 Sierra Leone 182 Kenya 180 Ethiopia 178 Sudan 4 Tanzania 1 Rwanda 1 Group B — Asian States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 2 Number of members voting: 191 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: United Arab Emirates 184 Kazakhstan 183 Japan 182 Republic of Korea 176 Pakistan 171 Group C — Eastern European States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 5 Number of members voting: 187 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Estonia 184 Montenegro 182 Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 3 Number of members voting: 189 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Brazil 184 Argentina 176 Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) 154 Bolivia (Plurinational State of) 2 Panama 1 Group E — Western European and other States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 2 Number of members voting: 190 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: United States of America 131 Germany 127 Ireland 124 Greece 78 Sweden 75 Netherlands 1

I congratulate those States that have been elected members of the Human Rights Council. I thank the tellers for their assistance in this election. The General Assembly has thus concluded its consideration of sub-item (d) of agenda item 110.