UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Friday elected 18 members into the Human Rights Council, a Geneva-based intergovernmental body within the UN system.
Through a secret ballot casting, the 18 UN member states that had presented their candidacies were all elected into the UN body to fill its 18 vacancies.
The members elected were Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Czech, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, India, Italy, the Philippines, Somalia, Togo and Uruguay.
These 18 members will start their tenure on Jan. 1, 2019 and will have a mandate of three years.
The UN Human Rights Council is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.
The council has 47 members, which are elected yearly at the UN General Assembly for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis.
