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Members of several oppressive regimes elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council

Representatives from Russia, China, Pakistan, and Cuba were voted into the body on Tuesday

Published: October 14, 2020 7:55am

Updated: October 14, 2020 8:37am

The United Nations has appointed representatives from several nations accused of repeated human rights violations to the organization's Human Rights Council.

U.N. General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir extended an invitation to China, Cuba, Russia and Pakistan to serve on the committee, following a vote on Tuesday afternoon. 

The five countries have been connected to such human-rights violations and abuses as suppressing religious freedoms, and committing genocide against their people. 

China has put an estimated 1 million Uyghur Muslim people in camps, which are widely considered detention centers, a  characterization that the ruling Chinese Communist Party has repeated rejected. 

Several of the countries listed frequently work with one another, against American interests. 

The council is well known for harshly targeting Israel, but not applying the same levels of scrutiny to other nations. It also routinely avoids examining the practices and behaviors of member states. 

In 2018, the United States withdrew from the body. 

"The Human Rights Council has provided cover, not condemnation, for the world's most inhumane regimes," said U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at the time. 

While the Republican Party, under the leadership of Donald Trump, has backed away from the standing body. The Democratic Party has made calls to rejoin the Humans Rights Council, including rejoining as a tenet of its 2020 national platform. 

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