Activists celebrate Syria's withdrawal from Human Rights Council voting

Critics still say replacement of Syria with Kuwait for tomorrow's voting by UN envoys cannot be seen as anything but the most marginal of improvements.

NEW YORK // UN envoys will vote tomorrow on new members for the Geneva-based Human Rights Council after weeks of mounting tensions that were eased when Syria withdrew its candidacy and allowed Kuwait to take its place.

Pressure groups and diplomats celebrated Syria's exit, saying Damascus had no right to have a seat on the organisation designed to protect human rights while it was orchestrating a crackdown on political dissent that has claimed at least 850 lives.

The council is criticised for having well-documented abusers such as China, Saudi Arabia and Cuba as members. Analysts say the efforts by some western, Asian and Arab states to block Syria show that the forum is cleaning up its act.

Susan Rice, the United States envoy to the UN, said the council is moving "in a more positive direction". Juliette de Rivero, a Geneva-based analyst with Human Rights Watch, said it could no longer accept countries "that are committing those types of abuses".

Rights groups started campaigning against Syria's candidacy months before the uprising began in the southern city of Deraa in mid-March.

Western diplomats pressured Damascus to withdraw. Last week, Syria's UN envoy, Bashar Ja'afari, announced it had swapped slots with Kuwait and would run in 2014 instead. The switch was only "rescheduling the timing of our candidacy", he added.

After Syria's exit, rights' monitors approve of most candidates running for 15 vacant seats.

Kuwait has replaced Syria, joining India, the Philippines and Indonesia in a vote for four vacant Asian seats. Benin, Botswana, Congo and Burkina Faso are expected to win the four uncontested African seats and begin their three-year council terms next month.

The rest of the candidates hail from the UN's three other regional groupings - Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Western Europe and others - which typically get cleaner bills of health from rights' monitors.

The UN's Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace its discredited predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, but is criticised for being dominated by non-democratic states that unfairly target Israel while granting a free pass to violators such as Sri Lanka.

Analysts point to the diplomatic manoeuvring that secured Syria's withdrawal and the UN General Assembly's decision to suspend Libya's membership of the council in March as evidence that standards are improving.

In recent months, the 47-nation council has begun investigating atrocities in Libya and Ivory Coast and passed a resolution urging Syrian officials to release detainees and allow peaceful protests.

Washington's envoy to Geneva, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, said the decision to appoint an investigator into Iranian abuses in March was a "seminal moment" for the forum, a long-awaited response to political repression following the disputed election of 2009.

Paula Schriefer, an analyst for the liberty watchdog, Freedom House, said: "We've seen more positive developments this year than in the first four years of the council combined, with fast action in rapidly-emerging situations like Libya and Syria, and finally making a strong stand on Iran, which has seen ongoing violations."

Analysts praise US President Barack Obama for ending America's boycott and joining the forum in 2009. Washington has been "engaged in a cross-regional way; it doesn't lead the charge on every issue," said Peggy Hicks, an advocate for Human Rights Watch.

Developing countries such as Mauritius, Argentina, Mexico, Chile and the Maldives have "become unconditional supporters of robust action by the council" after emerging from domestic human rights struggles, Ms Rivero said.

But not everyone sees progress in Geneva. Steven Groves, an analyst for a US-based think-tank, the Heritage Foundation, said the council still has serious flaws because of "extremely dubious" hard-line regimes that use it to bash Israel.

"You have to have people getting gunned down in the streets before a country's membership on the Human Rights Council is called into question," Mr Groves said. "How can the replacement of Syria with Kuwait be seen as anything but the most marginal of improvements?"

Ms Hicks said the Arab Spring had brought "little signals, but not the sea-change that's needed" from Arab envoys. She urged Egypt to advance the spirit of the popular revolt and effect change in the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

Analysts agree that the election process remains a major problem for the council. Candidates are selected by horse-trading within regional groups, which often put up uncontested slates to ensure victory for all their candidates.

Tomorrow's election has such "clean slates" for three of the regional groups. The 192-nation General Assembly will effectively rubber-stamp the Asian, African and Western European runners and only have a choice in Eastern Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ms Hicks called for "truly competitive elections" to encourage better candidates. Mr Groves said the forum also needs membership standards "so countries like Cuba, China, Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia are not allowed to sit on the council".