Last week Libya was formally suspended from the UN's Human Rights Council. Muammar Gaddafi's violent assault on parts of his own population constituted the straw that broke the camel's back.

But the Gadaffi regime did not enjoy a glowing human rights record before the Arab uprising began.

Yet Libya became a member just 10 months ago.

Dodgy members

Alongside the Council of Europe the UN body should be the world's most important rights institution.

But campaign groups have long complained of rights abuses in Libya, including reports of disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests.

So why was the country elected in the first place?

Spokesman for the HR Council Hendrik Sapey told RNW's IJ Desk that the Council itself plays no part in choosing which countries are elected as members - "that's the job of the UN General Assembly in New York... where politics plays a central role in these types of decisions," he said.

Is this seat free?

The UN's Human Rights Council obliges each member state to uphold the highest possible standards within its own territory - Libya's election last May was possible, according to Juliette De Rivero of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, "because within the African group the same number of vacancies as candidates were presented, so Libya's election was largely inevitable".

The current Human Rights Council's former incarnation, the Human Rights Commission, was abolished in 2005 after being discredited for including among its members many of the world's worst rights-abusing nations. 

For some critics, including the US, the Council is little better than its predecessor because it has a history of criticising Israel while ignoring abuses in countries like Burma and Zimbabwe.

For Juliette De Rivero from Human Rights Watch the Council  failed to monitor problem countries properly in the past, but things have improved. "In the last year or so, the dynamics of the Council have changed... it has appointed a UN expert on Iran... and we're pleased with the inquiry into Ivory Coast, and now the one for Libya... so where we were very pessimistic we now see room for opportunity".

The Netherlands is currently discussing the formation of a new Human Rights advisory body - to provide its government with balanced information and to recommend action. If the Human Rights Council manages to fulfill this function one day it could serve all its members with the same valuable role.