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Swiss professor appointed to UN rights council

International law expert, Walter Kälin, has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Kälin, professor of constitutional and international law at Bern University, is a specialist in the area of international human rights protection.

He has been a member of the 18-member committee before, from 2003 to 2008. His new term will run until 2014.

From 2004 to 2010 he was special representative of the UN Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

He takes over his new role from another Swiss legal expert, Helen Keller, who has been appointed judge at the European Court for Human Rights.

The Human Rights Committee monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

It is quite distinct from the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, which has 47 members and reports to the UN General Assembly.

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