India wins seat to UN Human Rights Council with 188 votes in Asia-Pacific category

India was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for a period of three years beginning 1 January, 2019, after getting 188 votes in the Asia-Pacific category on Friday.The 193-member UN General Assembly held elections in United Nations for new members to the UNHRC. The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot. Countries needed a minimum of 97 votes to get elected to the Council.India was vying for a seat in the Asia-Pacific category. Along with India, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji, and Philippines had also staked a claim in the same regional group.Given that there were five nations vying for five seats in the Asia Pacific category, all the countries were likely to get of elected.India will join Pakistan, China and Nepal, which were elected to the Council in previous years.Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin tweeted that India won the seat with the highest number of votes among all candidates:India was among the first batch of 47 countries elected to the Council in 2006 soon after it was set up and received an initial one-year term instead of three to facilitate a rotating roster of vacancies each year. It was again elected in 2007, 2011 and 2014 to three-year terms.Countries can be elected to only two consecutive terms and India had taken a year's break when its term ended in 2017.With inputs from agencies