African States at the UN Human Rights Council in 2018

The report analyzes the 2018 HRC records of 13 African states, finding a general unwillingness to defend international human rights and a significant lack of unity in voting. Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda showed the strongest commitment, while Burundi, Egypt, and Ethiopia were the most opposed. The analysis highlights a discrepancy between domestic freedom ratings and HRC performance, noting that domestic records are weak predictors of how states vote on the Council.

• African states on the HRC showed a significant lack of unity in 2018; out of 34 studied votes, there was not a single instance where African states voted in unison.
• The overall trend among African HRC members is an unwillingness to defend international human rights, characterized more by frequent abstentions than by active opposition.
• Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda were identified as having the strongest commitment to international human rights among the African members in 2018.
• Burundi, Egypt, and Ethiopia were the African states that most strongly opposed human rights during the period studied.
• Burundi had the worst overall record of all African HRC members in 2018, consistently voting for the most anti-human rights options across almost all categories except for resolutions on Israel.
• There is a notable disconnect between a country's domestic human rights status and its HRC voting behavior; for example, 'unfree' Rwanda performed better than 'free' South Africa.
• African states demonstrate a specific pattern of supporting resolutions on Israel while remaining reluctant to support other critical country-specific resolutions.
• Tunisia emerged as the most supportive African state regarding political freedoms, being the only one categorized as 'strongly supportive' in that area.

APA

Jordaan, E. (2020). African States at the UN Human Rights Council in 2018. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Special-Report-jordaan.pdf

Chicago

Jordaan, Eduard. African States at the UN Human Rights Council in 2018. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2020. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Special-Report-jordaan.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jordaan |first1=Eduard |title=African States at the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=August 2020 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Special-Report-jordaan.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jordaan2020african, author = {Jordaan, Eduard}, title = {{African States at the UN Human Rights Council in 2018}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Special-Report-jordaan.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }