Manama: Bahrain on Sunday announced its candidacy for membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for 2019-21.
The foreign ministry said the move came after Bahrain received the support of the Council of the Arab League and the endorsement of the Asia-Pacific group at the UN.
The elections will be held in October in New York.
Assistant Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Faisal Al Doseri highlighted at a meeting with the Arab ambassadors accredited in the kingdom, Bahrain’s programme for the candidacy and the voluntary pledges it submitted to protect and promote human rights regionally and internationally.
“It is time to work at the multilateral level, to share the experiences of Bahrain and its initiatives in the development and promotion of human rights, as well as its national mechanisms and achievements, in order to reach a long-term partnership to promote such initiatives and values internationally,” he said at the meeting.
Al Doseri said that King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa has launched several initiatives to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence among people regardless of their faith.
“Such an approach has led to several achievements in the field of democracy, guaranteed rights, freedoms, and human, political, economic and social development in various fields, including education, health, communication, media and sustainable development,” he said.
The periodic international reports submitted by Bahrain under the international agreement it joined reflect the Kingdom’s commitment to cooperate with international entities to create distinguished partnerships, he added.
The ministry plans to hold a second meeting with the non-Arab ambassadors on Tuesday.
The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 member countries responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights across the globe.
