The UN Human Rights Council today elected the Moroccan ambassador Omar Zniber as President of this Assembly until 2024despite opposition from a group of countries, led by South Africa, which rejected the designation on the grounds that Morocco was violating human rights in Western Sahara.
The secret ballot ended with thirty votes for the Moroccan candidate and 17 for the South African candidate Mxolisi Nkosi. in an election that is generally decided by consensus.
Is about the second vote in the organization's 17-year history The United Nations appoints its annual president, who should be part of the African group this year after the 47-country council will be led by Czech Ambassador Václav Bálek in 2023.
Moroccowho last year announced his intention to chair the Human Rights Council during the annual Africa mandate, He sought the support of the continent's countries so that his candidacy could materialize..
The reasons for South Africa's resistance
However, it failed to influence South Africa, a country that has often supported the proposal for a self-determination referendum by the Sahrawi people, a solution to this historic conflict that has also been supported by the United Nations and other countries such as Algeria, the Sahrawi's main ally, the Polisario Front is supported.
According to the country, the South African UN ambassador in Geneva, Nkosi, was presented as a candidate criticized Morocco's candidacy as a country that “contradicts the humanitarian principles of the United Nations.”
Unrest on the Polisario Front
After his election, the Moroccan ambassador assured that he would carry out his duties with the greatest possible flexibility and availability and that he would organize the Council's programs, meetings and exchanges “rationally and effectively”.
The Moroccan candidacy caused discontent among the Polisario Front, a movement fighting for the independence of the Sahrawis in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony occupied by Rabat since 1975.
Weeks ago, Sahrawi associations launched a campaign against Morocco's candidacyand stressed that Morocco's status as a “military occupying power in an African country and its failure to ratify the African Charter on Human Rights disqualify it from chairing the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of Africa.”