ARMENIA’S CANDIDACY FOR UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ALSO NOMINATED
NEW YORK, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Armenia will also
participate in the elections of the newly established UN Himan Rights
Council to be held at the UN headquarters in New York on May 9. 65
countries will compete for 47 seats in this body, Radio Liberty
reported. The most intense competition is expected to take place in
Eastern Europe Group, to which 6 seats have been allocated. According
to the UN information center, 13 countries are competing for seats in
the Eastern Europe Group: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia,
Ukraine, the Baltic states, Albania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the
Czech Republic. The UN General Assembly on March 15 voted by the
majority of votes in favor of setting up the UN Human Rights
Council. The 47-member council will regularly study reports on human
rights defence standards in the UN member states. The council’s
decisions are mandatory. This newly established body will replace the
Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Right, which consists of 53
members. “The human rights protection will remain the problem of
states, while the UN Human Rights Council will suggest mechanisms to
carry out control, propose new standards, give assessment and respond
immediately to gross violations of human rights in a country. In fact,
the council becomes a body of the UN General Assembly,” Armenia’s
Resident Representative to the UN Armen Martirosian told Radio
Liberty. According to him, Armenia has been a member of the UN
Commission om Human Rights since 2002. In 2004, the country was
re-elected until 2007. “As far as I know, a decision has already been
made in Yerevan that Armenia will nominate its candidacy for joining
the UN Human Rights Council of the first convocation,” Armen
Martirosian said.