You Can't Make this Stuff Up: Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Russia, and the People's Republic of China Join the U.N's 'Human Rights' Council

Member states of the United Nations on Tuesday elected 14 new countries to serve on the Human Rights Council, drawing fire from rights advocates critical of six of the incoming delegates for their dubious national track records in respecting personal freedoms. 

Most criticized were the elections of China, Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia to the 47-member body, on which states sit for rotating three-year terms. But some groups also questioned the choices of Algeria and Vietnam.

Other new members chosen to represent geographic regions were France, Macedonia, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Britain, the U.N. General Assembly office reported after the secret balloting at its New York headquarters. 

"This is a black day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the independent Geneva-based rights group U.N. Watch. "Today the U.N. sent a message that politics trumps human rights, and it let down millions of victims worldwide who look to the world body for protection."

The six new members in question are responsible for "massive violations of the freedoms of speech, press, religion and assembly," Neuer's group reported after what it called a comprehensive review of the countries' response to opposition, protest and ethnic and religious minorities.

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