Supervisor or Kindergarten
The United Nations Human Rights Council is supposed to overview respect and/or violation of human rights around the world. If one looks at the members it seems like a joke, or maybe it is a kind of kindergarten where high HR violators are sent to see if they can learn something.
Venezuela was a member! Actually there is good news in this field, the Council may be moving closer to what a supervisor agency should be. UN members voted Venezuela out of the Council. Well, not that they voted specifically on Venezuela (oh, they may feel it an offense), only that they failed to vote it in. While electing members for a new mandate that will last until, they chose Chile and Costa Rica instead.
It is a good decision. Even though Chile now has a leftwing president, both Chile and Costa Rica are at the top in the region in terms of institutional quality, and Chile has just rejected to destroy it in a much commented referendum. Chile got 144 votes, Costa Rica 134 and Venezuela 88. Among these were Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela (it is a vote for or against the proposed resolution), Argentina, Honduras and Mexico abstained, Brasil and Paraguay approved it.
So, somewhat good news for human rights around the world, but if one looks at the elected ones, one should wonder if countries chose those better to perform a good control of HR or they vote countries to be there and see if they learn anything, or if they feel some shame watching themselves in the mirror.
These are the elected members: Algeria (159), Bangladesh (152), Belgium (19), Chile (24), Costa Rica 36), Georgia (42), Germany (15), Kyrgyzstan (106), Maldivas (122), Morocco (92), Romania (54), South Africa (60), Sudan (175) and Vietnam (124). Numbers in brackets is the country’s position at the Institutional Quality Index (ICI) that I prepare for Relial (Red Liberal de América Latina).