Venezuela’s populist government has quietly secured the backing of Latin America and the Caribbean to obtain a diplomatic trophy that long eluded the late Hugo Chavez: a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Human rights groups have criticized the election by the United Nations General Assembly of several countries with questionable rights' records to the UN Human Rights Council. Of the 18 countries elected Monday to the Geneva-based body, human rights advocates say only about a third are qualified.
New York based Human Rights Watch has harshly criticized United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s quiet diplomacy approach to human rights issues in its annual report. Officials of the human rights monitoring group say the UN leader should not necessarily be elected to a second term later this year.