A/68/PV.51 General Assembly

The General Assembly will now take up sub-item (c) of agenda item 115 for the election of 14 members of the Human Rights Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 2013. The 14 outgoing members are as follows: Angola, Ecuador, Guatemala, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Poland, Qatar, the Republic of Moldova, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and Uganda. In accordance with paragraph 7 of resolution 60/251, of 15 March 2006, those Member States, except for those that have served two consecutive terms, namely, Angola and Qatar, are eligible for immediate re-election. The 14 vacant seats should be distributed among the regional groups as follows: four seats for the African States; four seats for the Asia-Pacific States; two seats for the Eastern European States; two seats for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two seats for the Western European and other States. The General Assembly will now proceed to the election of the 14 members of the Human Rights Council. In accordance with resolution 60/251, membership in the Council shall be open to all States *1355771* 13-55771 (E) 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 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: Argentina, Austria, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, the Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Sierra Leone, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The names of those 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 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 these procedures? It was so decided.

Accordingly, the election shall be held by secret ballot, and there shall be no nominations. Again, I should like to repeat that the 14 vacant seats are to be filled from among the regional groups as follows: four seats from among the African States; four seats from among the Asia-Pacific States; two seats from among the Eastern European States; two seats from among the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two seats from among the Western European and other States. The ballot papers reflect that pattern. In addition, I have been informed by the Secretariat that 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-eighth 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. In addition, ballot papers will be given only to the representative seated directly behind the country’s nameplate. I should like to seek the usual cooperation of representatives during the time when the General Assembly is conducting the elections. Please be reminded that during the voting procedure, all campaigning should cease in the General Assembly Hall. That means that, once the meeting has begun, no more campaign material can be distributed inside the Hall. All representatives are also requested to remain at their seats so that the voting process can proceed in an orderly manner. 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: 1 Number of members voting: 192 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: South Africa 169 Algeria 164 Morocco 163 Namibia 150 South Sudan 89 Tunisia 2 Group B — Asian States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 1 Number of members voting: 192 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Viet Nam 184 China 176 Maldives 164 Saudi Arabia 140 Jordan 16 Islamic Republic of Iran 1 Singapore 1 Thailand 1 Group C — Eastern European 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: Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 177 Russian Federation 176 Latvia 1 Slovakia 1 Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 0 Number of members voting: 193 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Cuba 148 Mexico 135 Uruguay 93 Group E — Western European and other States Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 14 Number of members voting: 178 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: France 174 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 171 Andorra 1 Greece 1 Luxembourg 1 Portugal 1 San Marino 1

I congratulate those States that have been elected members of the Human Rights Council, and I thank the tellers for their assistance in this election. The General Assembly has thus concluded its consideration of sub-item (c) of agenda item 115.