10 May 2006, NEW YORK—The Philippines today achieved another remarkable success in the United Nations by winning a seat in the new 47-member Human Rights Council.

The Philippine Mission to the United Nations said the Philippines got the votes of 136* *of the 191 Member States of the UN or 40 more than the absolute majority of 96 votes required to secure a seat in the UN's top human rights body.

"Our election is a telling testimonial from Members States of United Nations and the international community on human rights in the Philippines," said Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr., Permanent Representative to the UN.

"We are gratified to note that the goodwill and respect the Philippines gained through our participation in the Security Council live on," he added.

Ambassador Baja said the election of the Philippines speaks well of the country's human rights record as the General Assembly resolution establishing the Council required Member States to take into account the contribution of candidate-countries to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments thereto when casting their ballots.

He said that Member States are under no obligation to elect a candidate that does not demonstrate the necessary commitment to protect and promote human rights, regardless of how many ballots are required to fill all seats on the Council.

"Our election rounds our role in the three pillars of the United Nations in the 21st century," Ambassador Baja said. "On security, we attained our niche through our participation in the Security Council and our initiative on interfaith cooperation for peace; on development, through our initiatives on debt conversion into Millennium Development Goals projects and on migration; and on human rights and rule of law, through this election and our forthcoming participation in the Council."

The Philippines announced its candidature two weeks after the adoption of the resolution establishing the Geneva-based Council, as a result of which other missions had a head start in their campaigns. According to the ambassador, 65 countries made a bid for the 47 available seats in the Geneva-based body.

"The Philippine Mission launched an intense and personal campaign in New York while our Foreign Service Posts and the Department supported us," Ambassador Baja said. "We were also able to contain fall-outs from political noises coming from the country as well as negative reports from some non-governmental organizations."

In its campaign, the Philippine Mission stressed that the Philippines, as a founding member of the United Nations, was instrumental in the inclusion of "self-determination" and "independence" into the UN Charter, which helped countries under colonial rule to be independent and achieve membership in the world body.
The Philippines also has a long tradition of promoting and protecting human rights—having been a member of the defunct Commission on Human rights for 41 years. The Philippines last sat in the Commission in 2000.

According to Ambassador Baja, the Philippine Mission also emphasized that the Philippines is party to all of the seven core international rights instruments and leads the advocacy for the establishment of a human rights regional mechanism in Southeast Asia. END