weekly newspaper.
When you look at some of the countries that get onto the United Nations Human Rights Council, Finland should be a shoo-in. Some others have appalling human rights records. By contrast, Finland is among the most democratic and egalitarian, human rights-respecting countries on the planet. Yet, because of the peculiarities of the regional representation system, Finland is fighting hard to win a seat on the council, for the period 2022 to 2024, in elections to be held by the UN General Assembly in October this year.
The 47-nation council has 13 seats for African states, 13 for Asian-Pacific states and eight seats for Latin American and Caribbean states, but only seven for the “Western European and other group” (WEOG) of states (that is, the Western democracies) and just six seats for Eastern European states.