(CNSNews.com) - To the dismay of Western governments, African nations have ensured that Zimbabwe gets another three-year term as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

The Geneva-based body is the international system's top human rights panel, but after years of mounting credibility problems, Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants to shut it down as part of a broader U.N. reform program.

The United States strongly criticized the decision to allow Zimbabwe, a country described as an "outpost of tyranny" by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to renew its tenure.

The panel's 53 members serve for overlapping three-year periods, and the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) this week nominated countries to fill 15 seats that fall vacant from January 1 next year.

Four of the 15 seats were earmarked for African states. Rather than put forward four new countries for the four seats, African members of ECOSOC put forward three newcomers - Botswana, Cameroon and Morocco - and Zimbabwe. With no contest for the positions among African nations, the four were duly "elected."

Zimbabwe is just one of a group of nations on the commission despite being described by campaigners as egregious human rights abusers. Others are China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

Of those five, China's three-year term also ends this year. Like Zimbabwe, China was also re-appointed, uncontested, for another three years.

Annan wants the commission, which meets in Geneva for six weeks every year, to be replaced by a smaller, permanent human rights council, with members elected by the General Assembly and held to strict human rights criteria.

It's one of a series of reforms he hopes will be accepted by U.N. member states at a major summit in New York in September.

William Brencick, a U.S. representative at ECOSOC, voiced dismay at the re-appointment of a country which he said in a statement "maintains repressive controls on political assembly and the media, harasses civil society groups and continues to encourage a climate where the opposition fears for its safety."

Reaction also came from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who said he hoped the "outrageous" appointment of Zimbabwe "will help inspire U.N. members to enact extensive and meaningful reform of the commission."

Australia and Canada, two leading members of the Commonwealth grouping of former British colonies and protectorates, also criticized Zimbabwe's return to the commission.

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Albert Musarurwa, was quoted as calling Zimbabwe's re-appointment "a slap in the face for human rights groups."

"The commission must be immediately reformed if it is going to hold onto the little credibility it has," Musarurwa said.

President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party early this month was declared the winner of parliamentary elections which the U.S., the European Union and others described as tainted.

But despite Western and opposition claims that the elections were rigged, African nations rallied round Mugabe, saying the poll was transparent and reflected the will of Zimbabwe's people.

In neighboring South Africa, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) was a rare exception, declaring that its observers in Zimbabwe - part of a South African parliamentary delegation - could not endorse the "free and fair" verdict.

On Thursday, the DA called the decision to return Zimbabwe to the human rights commission "appalling."

DA representative Douglas Gibson said it appeared that African nations now valued solidarity with each other above the protection of human rights.

"This is a short-sighted and destructive stance as it undermines Africa's credibility in international affairs and sends a message to human rights abusers, such as Robert Mugabe, that they are free to operate with impunity," Gibson said.

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