Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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337. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the current system in which voting on membership of certain bodies takes place in secret which was highlighted by the recent controversy surrounding the election of Saudi Arabia to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in view of his Department's role in UN human rights bodies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25825/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The policy positions which Ireland takes at the UN are a matter of public record as voting on resolutions takes place in public. However, voting on membership of UN bodies involves expressing preferences between Member States or between individual candidates nominated by Member States. This can have implications which go beyond a particular election and the policy issues addressed by these bodies. Accordingly, since 1947, the rules of procedure governing UN General Assembly elections provide that UN elections take place by secret ballot.

These rules of procedure were established to facilitate the management of sensitive international relations between countries of different views and political backgrounds. This approach also ensures that all states – especially smaller states – can cast their votes without undue pressure from larger and more influential states that might result from votes being made public.

The convention that votes in UN elections are not publicly disclosed is also well-established among the 193 Member States, as to do so could seriously damage bilateral relations between States. Ireland joined the UN in 1955 and successive Irish governments have abided by its rules and conventions in the 62 years since then.

As the Deputy is aware, in general for elections the Member States are divided into regional groupings and the practice is to allocate a certain number of positions on each committee to each regional group. Regional groups often agree the candidate countries for the seats allocated to them in advance. For example, for the recent election to the Commission on the Status of Women, the 55 States in the Asia-Pacific grouping agreed five candidate countries for five seats for their grouping on the 45 member Commission; these were Iraq, Japan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan. Elections to the Commission took place on 19 April and the Commission will have its next annual session in March 2018. It will meet for a period of several weeks, and then publish non-binding conclusions that Member States are expected to have regard to.