Five nations elected to U.N. Security Council, but Belarus candidacy was denied
U.N. HQ IN NEW YORK
The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, of whom five are permanent (the USA, Russia, China, France, and Great Britain) and ten other states elected for two-year mandates; five of these ten non-permanent mandates are renewed annually, in compliance with some rules of geographical distribution. In the secret ballot vote held in the General Assembly, Slovenia, in competition with Belarus for the mandate that belongs to Eastern Europe, obtained 153 votes, against 38 for Belarus.
“The member states of the UN have decided beyond doubt that the serious violations of human rights in Belarus and attempts to minimize the Russian atrocities in Ukraine disqualify this country from holding a seat on the Security Council, a crucial body for guaranteeing human rights,” commented Louis Charbonneau, head of the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch. For the other places put up for competition, reserved for Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions, there was only one candidate each. Algeria obtained 184 votes, South Korea 180, Sierra Leone 188, and Guyana 191. The five countries elected on Tuesday will replace Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates in the Security Council from January 1, 2024. Belarus had been an unopposed candidate since 2007 for the 2024–25 Eastern European seat. Slovenia entered the race in December 2021 after a brutal crackdown by the authorities in Belarus on protests following a 2020 presidential election. Russia has since used the territory of Belarus as a launchpad for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “The Russians have always argued that a lot of states support Ukraine in public at the U.N. but sympathize with Russia in private. But this secret ballot does not support that claim at all,” International Crisis Group U.N. Director Richard Gowan said. Russia moved ahead last month with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. It is the Kremlin’s first deployment of such weapons outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
By Sara Colin
