United States elected to UN Human Rights Council

Source: Xinhua | 05-13-2009 07:59

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Tuesday was elected for a three-year term to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council for the first time.

The 63rd session of the 83rd Planary meeting of the UN General Assembly is held at the UN headquarters in New York, the U.S. May 12, 2009. Eighteen UN members were elected to the UN Human Rights Council during the meeting on Tuesday. The U.S. won 167 votes to enter the UN Human Rights Council for the first time. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

The U.S. election victory was contained in the outcome of the election of 18 members of the UN human rights body at a plenary meeting of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly.

Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters after the meeting that the United States is "very pleased to be elected and join" the council.

"We are particularly gratified by the strong support. We received 90 percent of the valuable vote cast," Rice said.

"We are gratified by the strong showing of encouragement for the United States to again play a meaningful leadership role in multilateral organizations including the United Nations," she said.