By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS – On Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly elected the United States as a member of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. This comes three years after Trump’s withdrawal from the Council. It did so over an accusation that it had suffered from chronic biases towards Israel and a dearth of reform.

In secret ballot, the General Assembly of 193 members gave 168 votes to the United States. On January 1, the United States will begin a three year term. This pits Washington against Beijing or Moscow who started terms as council members this year.

U.S. President Joe Biden was inaugurated in January. He pledged that human rights would form the core of his foreign policy. The administration has repeatedly criticized China, including Hong Kong and Xinjiang. It also blasted Russia.

Reuters reviewed the records of the Biden Administration so far and found that concerns about human rights in foreign countries were repeatedly ignored in favour of national security priorities, engagement with foreign power, and other issues.

Louis Charbonneau from Human Rights Watch U.N. stated that “the U.S. will be able to demonstrate just how serious is the Biden administration about making human rights central for its domestic-and foreign policies.” They should make use of their time at the council, despite making many mistakes so far.

Human Rights Council candidates will be elected by geographical groupings to guarantee equal representation. The election of 13 new members was not competitive. Five members were re-elected. A member cannot serve two terms consecutively.

The General Assembly also elected Kazakhstan, Gambia, Benin, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Paraguay, Honduras, Luxembourg, Finland, Montenegro and Lithuania and re-elected Cameroon, Eritrea, Somalia, India and Argentina on Thursday.

The United States got the lowest vote total, with only Eritrea receiving 144 votes.