Indonesia has assumed the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council, raising questions about credibility, consistency and the future of scrutiny in places like West Papua and Iran.

Here’s bad news for Iranian dissidents protesting the 39-year rule of cleric Ali Hosseini Khamene; if they’re hoping for support from the UN Human Rights Council best get the update. It’s now led by Indonesia.

A glance at the public record of the Southeast Asian nation’s behaviour in West Papua shows there’s little chance of the Council’s involvement in Iran.

The one-year presidency of the Geneva-based UNHRC (not to be confused with the UNHCR refugee agency) has been passed to the world’s fourth largest nation; the Council is headed by Sidharto Suryodipuro, 59, who once served in Canberra and as Ambassador to India.

It’s the first time Indonesia has chaired the UNHRC since its establishment 20 years ago. Sidharto has the status of an ambassador and will rule three sessions scheduled for late February, June and September.

His appointment got off to a bad start with comments  from Amnesty International: “Boasting that Indonesia ‘successfully won’ the position of president … is  not based on the facts.”

The career diplomat inherited the rotational position from Switzerland’s Jürg Lauber; it was the turn of the Group of Asia and the Pacific Small Island Developing States_._

Indonesia got the job because it was the only candidate.

Indonesia is not an exemplar of human rights. It’s ranked as a “flawed democracy” by the US-based Freedom House, an NGO set up in 1941 to “combat fascism”.

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