Zambia has won a three-year seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The General Assembly elected 15 members on Tuesday 13 October in New York, during its 81st session, and Zambia was among the four African states chosen, alongside Ghana, Nigeria and Burundi, Al Jazeera reported. The term runs from 2027 to 2029.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mulambo Haimbe, who led the delegation during the campaign, announced the result and described the election as a milestone in Zambia’s multilateral diplomacy, Lusaka Times reported. He said the seat offered what he called ‘two-way impact’: stronger protection of rights at home and a Council that better serves developing nations. In a statement carried by Lusaka Times and Open Zambia, the Government said it ‘expresses its sincere appreciation to all United Nations Member States that supported Zambia’s candidature’ and looked forward to working with the international community.
The case Lusaka made
The Ministry’s statement tied the bid to the abolition of the death penalty, stronger protections for women, children and persons with disabilities, and wider access to education and social support, and linked all of it to President Hakainde Hichilema’s Grow Zambia Agenda. Zambia’s stated priorities for its term are the rights of women, children and vulnerable groups, the right to development, and the connection between human rights, climate resilience and sustainable development.
The vote nobody could lose
The 15 seats were filled without a contest. Each regional group nominated exactly as many candidates as it had seats — for the second year running, according to Al Jazeera. Asia-Pacific sent Kuwait, Nepal, Jordan and Japan; Latin America and the Caribbean sent Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay; Ireland and Germany took the Western seats and Moldova and Ukraine the Eastern European ones.
This uncompetitive vote makes a mockery of the word ‘election’.
— Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, as reported by Al Jazeera on 14 October
Mr Charbonneau urged member states to insist on competitive slates so that candidates with poor human-rights records could be rejected, and said no one should have a seat on the body ‘handed to them on a silver platter’. The Al Jazeera report does not single out any elected state by name. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the matter was one for the 193 member states, and that elected members carried ‘an added responsibility to protect human rights’.
The Council reviews countries’ rights records, appoints investigators and sends fact-finding missions. For Zambia the seat arrives in the same week that a sedition case against the opposition’s presidential candidate was referred to the High Court and a former ruling-party official was pushed to the ground outside the Supreme Court — both reported elsewhere in this edition — and it will mean a term of scrutiny as well as influence. The Government’s statement did not address the domestic arguments; it presented the seat as recognition of reforms already made.
Sources: Lusaka Times, “Zambia Elected To UN Human Rights Council For 2027-2029 Term” (13 Oct 2026); Al Jazeera, “UN Human Rights Council elects 15 members in uncontested vote” (14 Oct 2026); Open Zambia, “Zambia elected to UN Human Rights Council for 2027–2029” (13 Oct 2026).