New York - International law expert Vasilka Sancin has told the STA that her candidacy for a new term on the UN Human Rights Committee failed yesterday because the former government blocked her nomination. Her candidacy was submitted as the last one, in early June, almost two months after the 6 April deadline.

Sacin was elected to the committee for the 2019-2022 term in 2018 and has been serving as one of its three vice-chairs since 2021. Her current term runs out at the end of the year.

She decided to stand for re-election on time, but the previous Janez Janša government did not back her candidacy. Instead, the Justice Ministry published a call for applications on 23 February, to which she applied as the only candidate.

Her application was then stuck in the government procedure without the government providing a reason for this.

The new government of Robert Golob de-blocked her re-election bid at its maiden session on 1 June, so her candidacy was submitted as the last one almost two months after the 6 April deadline.

Yesterday, her candidacy was endorsed in New York, but she received only 49 votes, while she would need 115.

Sancin told the STA the result had been excellent given the circumstances. She said many countries had expressed great regret that they were unable to vote for her because they had promised support to other candidates before her candidacy had been filed.

She said she had only two weeks to campaign for her re-election, while others started a year and a half earlier or at least a few months ago.

"I strongly hope that in Slovenia's future such harmful actions for our country will not repeat and that we will not lose extraordinary opportunities like this for no reason," she said.