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South Africa and Morocco will cross swords on Wednesday January 10 in Geneva. Both countries are bidding to preside the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The 47 members of the United Nations HRC to vote on Wednesday are as follow : Africa has 13 seats; 13 also for the Asia-Pacific region; 8 for Latin America and the Caribbean; 7 for Western Europe and others and 6 seats for Eastern Europe.
In its race to win the presidency of the UN body for this year, Morocco has already secured the support of the Arab League last September. The Kingdom will thus receive the votes of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia. On the other hand, Algeria is not expected to comply with the decision taken by the executive council of the Arab League.
Only states vote
Among the African countries that could vote in favor of Morocco are Ivory Coast, Benin, Malawi and Gambia. These countries recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. In order to guarantee the support of these countries, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, notably received his counterparts from Benin Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, on December 12. On December 13, he met with the Gambian Mamadou Tangara, and on December 16, with the head of diplomacy of Malawi Mamadou Tangara.
On the sidelines of the Russian-Arab League Forum, held on December 20 in Marrakech, Bourita held talks with the Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Al-Sadiq. Ghana, Burundi, Cameroon, and Algeria complete the list of African states.
The Asia-Pacific region also has 13 seats within the UN HRC: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Qatar and Vietnam.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the candidacy of South Africa is one step ahead of that of Morocco, particularly because of the presence at the UNHRC of Cuba, Honduras and Brazil.
On the other hand, Rabat can hope for a vote in its favor from the Dominican Republic and Paraguay, two countries that recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. Costa Rica, Argentina and Chile are the other members of this regional bloc at the UN HRC.
The Western Europe and Others group consists of Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United States. Eastern Europe is represented by Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Romania.
For the record, Nasser Bourita met on September 21 in New York with his Albanian counterpart, Olta Xhacka. In terms of these last two geographical groups, Morocco could benefit from South Africa's decision to file a complaint before the International Criminal Court against Israel for committing war crimes in Gaza.
The Moroccan candidacy has, in recent weeks, been the target of a media campaign led by the Polisario, supported by reports from international NGOs and resolutions from the European Parliament denouncing the human rights situation in Morocco.
Usually, the president of the UNHRC is appointed by consensus, with the exception of 2021. Saudi Arabia, which then opposed the candidacy of Fijian Nazhat Shameem Khan, pushed Bahrain to present an applicant. The voting operation gave victory to the representative of the Fiji Islands.
