The U.N. General Assembly reelected Japan as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday.

Other member states elected or reelected to serve a three-year term beginning June 20 are Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, France, Gabon, Ghana, Pakistan, South Korea, Slovakia, Ukraine, Britain and Zambia.

The Geneva-based U.N. council was formed to address human rights violations.

The 47-seat council was created in June 2006 to replace the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, a body criticized for having included member states that did not guarantee the human rights of their citizens.

"The Human Rights Council has one very important difference from its predecessor...it can no longer simply be a free for all," said Steve Crawshaw, the Human Rights Watch's U.N. advocacy director.

"You have to make pledges on your human rights records in order to get onto the council," he said.

Crawshaw emphasized that a stronger council is necessary, saying, "The more we can get a strong council, the more that scrutiny itself will become stronger in the months to come."

The 47 seats on the council are distributed among regional groups of the United Nations 13 for Africa, 13 for Asia, six for Eastern Europe, eight for Latin America and the Caribbean, and seven for Western Europe and other groups. Membership is limited to two consecutive terms.

From Asia, six countries -- South Korea, Pakistan, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Japan -- vied for election.

Sri Lanka, under fire for its poor human rights record, was denied a seat on the council, though it had campaigned strongly.

Human Rights Watch Special Counsel Lawrence Moss called Sri Lanka's defeat a "victory."

"We think that it sends a strong message to the government of Sri Lanka that it's got to curb the abuses by its security forces and should work with U.N. international human rights monitors," Moss said.

Asked about the election of countries with poor human rights records such as Gabon, Zambia, Bahrain and Pakistan, John Sawers, the current Security Council president and Britain's ambassador to the  United Nations,  said: "I think that membership on the Human Rights Council is a spur to all countries to ensure that they have good defensible records on human rights."

"All those who are elected on the council will be under added scrutiny for their human rights record," he said.

Source: Japan Economic Newswire