Rights groups such as HRW and UN Watch strongly condemned the presence of countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba in the run-up to the vote.
Algeria, China, and Russia – each have 10 or more unfulfilled requests for visits by UN rights investigators, according to HRW. Saudi Arabia and Vietnam each have seven outstanding requests.
But many experts say the increasingly aggressive campaigning for seats shows the rights council’s increasing importance.
“Since its inception, the Human Rights Council has included a lot of repressive regimes. A few years ago nobody would have taken much notice of these elections,” said Richard Gowan, a director of New York University’s Center for International Cooperation.
“But the Council has been unusually active during the Arab Spring and passed a series of resolutions condemning the Syrian regime while the Security Council has been paralyzed by Russia and China,” he added.
He said Russia, China, Cuba and Vietnam could use their seats on the Human Rights Council to oppose further resolutions attacking Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Saudi Arabia “will want to bash Syria even harder” at the council.
Hicks said that as no country has a veto on Human Rights Council resolutions “a hard-working majority can still achieve concrete results” in Geneva.
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States remain permanent members of the Security Council and can veto any resolution. Russia and China have vetoed three resolutions on the Syria conflict.
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