Argentina was elected this Monday to head the United Nations Human Rights Council for the year 2022. The South American nation was chosen by acclamation at a session held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The 47-county council is the world's leading authority on Human Rights.

Argentina's Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said onTwitter the appointment is a recognition to the country's "commitment to human rights asas a state policy since the recovery of democracy in 1983".

The chairman will be Federico Villegas Beltrán, a lawyer and career diplomat who joined the foreign service with honors in 1993, and has been based in Switzerland since March 2020.

Villegas Delgado, during his acceptance speech, recognized the Grandmothers and Mothers of Plaza de Mayo who, he said, are an example of "Argentina's progress in the field of Human Rights".

In this regard, he recalled when those groups sent delegates to Geneva in the late 1970s to denounce the kidnapping of their children and grandchildren. 30 years later, the Argentine diplomat pointed out, the Mothers and Grandmothers collaborate with the UN on the International Convention against the Enforced Disappearance of People.