UN faces backlash as Cameroon, others to be maintained on Human rights Council

The United Nations, UN is being castigated by many ahead of the upcoming elections into its Human Rights Council that will see Cameroon among other nations given seats.

Made up of a majority of nations described as the world’s worst rights abusers, many say the council will not function as it should or it would be shooting itself in the leg.

Eighteen countries from five regional blocs are to be elected in Thursday in an uncontested vote by the UN Security Council in New York to serve a three-year term in the 47-member council.

Voted last year, Cameroon will be maintained as its mandate expires in 2022.

Some of the other nations on the council include Egypt, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia.

Following an agreement reached at last year, this year’s election into the council will go uncontested.

According to Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director, Daniel Balson, “it puts them on the world stage, and moreover, it empowers them to fundamentally undermine notions of human rights that are accepted internationally.”

Prior to the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions, Cameroon had been accused several times by national and foreign rights bodies of gross rights violations especially in the Far North region in the fight against Book Haram.

With the escalation of the Anglophone crisis into an armed conflict, the calls have since reached an all-time high, as thousands have lost their property, villages and even lives.