Marshall Islands wins UN Human Rights Council seat with climate, nuclear justice agenda

Photo courtesy: RMI Office of the President. Retrieved from bernarnews.org

Marshall Islands was elected on Wednesday to sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council from next year, with climate change and nuclear justice as its top priorities.

Currently there are no Pacific island nations represented on the 47-member peak U.N. human rights body.

Marshall Islands stood with the full backing of the Pacific Islands Forum and its 18 presidents and prime ministers.

The HRC’s mission is to promote and protect human rights and oversee U.N. processes, including investigative mechanisms and to advise the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Addressing the General Assembly in September, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine warned that “common multilateral progress is failing us in the hour of greatest need, perhaps most at risk are human rights.”

She said accountability must apply to all nations “without exception or double standard.”