UN recognition for UAE a fitting honour, Gulf News 

(MENAFN - Emirates News Agency (WAM)) The UAE has worked hard to promote human rights, both within the country and abroad. It has diligently established laws that uphold and protect fundamental freedoms and legal rights of individuals, rights of women and children, stop human trafficking and protect the rights of foreign workers which is particularly important in the UAE's case, given its large expatriate work force, a local daily commented.

"The UAE's success in being voted on to the United Nations Human Rights Council for a three-year term, starting from early 2013, is welcome international recognition of the work the country has done in this area. The UAE gathered support from 184 countries, which was the highest among the four Asian countries to join the Human Rights Council, and the second highest for any country in the world," Gulf News said in its today's editorial.

Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, defined the sense of the UAE's duty to live up to its membership of the Human Rights Council, when he said that the UAE's membership of the Council puts additional onus to stay our course firmly in consistence with the UAE's constitutional principles, which place respect for human rights at the top of national priorities.

"All the UAE government figures commenting on the UN vote have made the point that the country's commitment to human rights is not a new fad, but has been part of the UAE's culture and values for generations, which value tolerance, openness, justice, equality and human dignity", the paper concluded.