Bashar Assad eyes seat on UN Human Rights Council

Even as reports of massacres and widespread torture in Syria continue to surface daily, the country is a serious contender for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, according to a UN watchdog group.

From a US-sponsored and EU-backed draft resolution debated Wednesday in Geneva, it emerged that Syria is vying for a seat on the council starting 2014, UN Watch reported. Although Damascus’s brutal crackdown on protesters — which has already cost the lives of at least 10,000 people — has been widely condemned by the international community, including Arab and Muslim nations, it is not unlikely that Syria would win its bid.

“As part of the UN’s 53-nation Asian group, Syria’s candidacy would be virtually assured of victory due to the prevalent system of fixed slates, whereby regional groups orchestrate uncontested elections, naming only as many candidates as allotted seats,” the pro-Israel watchdog group wrote on its website.

Elections to the UNHRC, which includes 47 nations, take place in 2013 at the United Nations General Assembly.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/assad-vies-for-seat-on-un-human-rights-council-report-says/