Fiji Representative to head Human Rights Council

Fiji, the favorite of Western nations, won the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, beating Bahrain and Uzbekistan in a secret ballot that resolved a tense deadlock over the selection. 

The vote was called after an impasse that meant the council, the only intergovernmental global body to promote and protect human rights worldwide, began meetings this week leaderless for the first time in its 15-year history.

Fiji's Nazahat Shameen Khan, a British-educated former High Court judge, won with 29 votes versus 14 for Bahrain and four for Uzbekistan, Vice-President Ali Ibn Abi Talib Abdelrahman Mahmoud told a nearly-empty UN chamber where delegates voted one-by-one due to COVID-19 measures