Havana, Aug 5 (Prensa Latina) Cuban jurist and former diplomat Miguel Alfonso Martinez was elected president of the new Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council.

 The former spokesman of the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry and president of the Cuban Society of International Law will preside over the Committee in the next three years, Granma newspaper reported Tuesday.

 Russian jurist and former diplomat Vladimir Kartashkin, who worked before at the UN secretariat in New York, was elected one of the two vice presidents, together with Egyptian lawyer Mona Zulfikar, women's rights activist.

 The Committee advises the group of 47 nations that comprise the Council, created two years ago to replace the discredited UN Human Rights Commission.