Edward Thomas from Ireland was recommended to replace Baderin as Independent Expert on Sudan by the UN Human Rights Council's own cross-regional consultative group and the Council President. Normally, their recommendation is subsequently rubber-stamped by the Council itself.
But on September 25, Sudan formally sent a letter to the Human Rights Council President objecting to the choice of Edward Thomas from Ireland to replace Baderin as Independent Expert.
The Council President Baudelaire Ndong Ella of Gabon (a member of the Islamic bloc) responded to Sudan's objection by effectively giving the country a veto.
- On October 1, 2014 President Ella said: "I would like to invite the Consultative Group to reconsider the list of candidates for the position of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan and to propose a new recommendation within three weeks."
- The Consultative Group, composed of representatives of the five regional groups (Canada, Lithuania, Morocco, Peru and the Republic of Korea) obediently went back to the drawing board. It held a meeting on October 23, 2014 "to consider and interview additional candidates" for the Independent Expert on Sudan. According to its report, the Group "spent six hours interviewing a total of six additional shortlisted candidates" from France, Zambia, Benin, Malta, Uganda and Afghanistan. In the end the group shortlisted four people. The Group also noted it "considers these candidates to be in addition to the first recommended candidate Edward Thomas of Ireland."
- On October 24, the President informed the Council's Bureau that he "request[ed] the Consultative Group to provide him with a new recommendation for the mandate of the Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Sudan...[and] that he will conduct consultations after receiving the recommendation of the Consultative Group and before proceeding to the appointment of the mandate holder..."
- On November 5, 2014 the Council President issued a "revised list of candidates" and announced that "in light of the exceptional circumstances that led the Consultative Group to recommend four additional candidates" for the position of Independent Expert on Sudan, he decided to appoint Aristide Nononsi of Benin. He did not bother to inform the world that the so-called "exceptional circumstances" consisted of the Human Rights Council putting itself at the disposal of the government of Sudan - whose leader is a fugitive from the ICC - and the African group of nations that are protecting him.
- On November 6, 2014 the Human Rights Council approved the appointment by consensus.