Ron Prosor, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, speaks at the UN's International Holocaust Remembrance Day observance on Jan. 25, 2013. Photo: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, was unanimously nominated to chair a UN Human Rights Committee election on Tuesday, Israel’s UN mission said in a statement. 170 countries voted for Prosor, including members of the Arab bloc.

The selection of Israel’s representative to chair the vote, which was for one of the 18 positions on the Committee, is the latest sign of progress for Israel at the UN, a mission spokesperson told The Algemeiner. It comes just a short while after the Jewish State rejoined the Human Rights Council in Geneva and just days after Israel was admitted into JUSCANZ, the UN’s core coordinating group on human rights.

“It is a great honor to chair the elections for the Human Rights Committee. The central role Israel plays to advance human rights around the world is the real answer to anyone calling for boycotts against Israel,” Ambassador Prosor said in a statement.

Representatives from the Israeli Mission to the UN said, “the choice to nominate Prosor to chair the elections process is a sign of the great admiration other UN ambassadors have for Prosor, who is renowned for his outspokenness on the discrimination against Israel in the Human Rights Council.”

The elections to the Human Rights Committee, not to be confused with the more high-profile Human Rights Council, happen once every two years. The Human Rights Committee is a treaty-based mechanism where a group of experts examines reports and rules on individual communications pertaining only to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.