Jakarta – Indonesia has been re-elected as the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council member representing the Asia-Pacific region for the period of 2015-2017, the Indonesian Permanent Representative to the UN office in New York, US, has said.

"This proves that the international community believes in Indonesia's efforts to promote and protect human rights. We also consider that the re-election represents support for Indonesia, which has just inaugurated its new president and vice president," said Indonesia's permanent representative to the UN, Desra Percaya, as quoted by Antara news agency on Wednesday.

Indonesia, together with Bangladesh and Qatar, have been re-elected as the representatives of countries in the Asia-Pacific region at the UN Human Rights Council in a recent election process. It is the fourth time for Indonesia to be re-elected as a council member.

Meanwhile, Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria and the Republic of Congo were elected to represent the African region in the council. Albania and Latvia were elected as representatives from Eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Portugal for Western Europe and Bolivia, El Salvador, and Paraguay for Latin America and the Caribbean. Indonesia has been a member of the UN Human Rights Council since 2006.

"We will be facing challenges to continue to promote and protect human rights at the national level while, at the same time, we have to contribute to human rights protection and promotion in the regional and international levels," said Desra.

The UN Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the UN that works toward strengthening efforts to promote and protect human rights in countries around the world. The council, which was established in 2006, comprises 47 member countries. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/22/ri-re-elected-un-human-rights-council-member.html