This past Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly has officially cast its vote in favor of suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council. The vote was cast as part of a session in New York and takes place in response to the ever-growing condemnation of alleged war crimes committed by the Russian invasion forces storming Ukraine.
“Russia’s rights of membership in the UN Human Rights Council has just been suspended,” stated Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba. “War criminals have no place in UN bodies aimed at protecting human rights. Grateful to all member states which supported the relevant UNGA resolution and chose the right side of history.”
Out of the total of 175 votes that were cast, 93 stood in favor of the removal while just 24 stood against the removal. The remaining 58 accounted for abstentions. Just over two-thirds of the total body (excluding the abstentions) was needed in order to finalize a vote in favor of the suspension to be counted as successful.
The group that cast their vote against the suspension of Russia included: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Congo, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Kazakhstan, Syria, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe, along with obviously Russia itself. The most notable nations to abstain from voting were India, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
It is extremely rare to see a suspension from the United Nations Human Rights Council and the only other example of this taking place was back in 2011 when Libya was removed from the council in the wake of violence by Gaddafi’s troops against protesters.
This newly adopted resolution expresses “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.”
This past Monday, Lina Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, officially announced that the United States would be seeking the removal of Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council due to its choice to invade Ukraine.
“I am returning to New York to do two things. One: I will take this to the Security Council tomorrow morning and address Russia’s actions directly,” stated Thomas-Greenfield, as claimed by a spokesperson. “Two: In close coordination with Ukraine, European countries and other partners at the UN, we are going to seek Russia’s suspension from the UN Human Rights Council.”
“Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce. It hurts the credibility of the Council and the UN writ large. And it is wrong, which is why we believe it is time the UN General Assembly vote to suspend them,” continued Thomas-Greenfield.
“Pushing Russia off of the Human Rights Council is the right move. It should be easy for every single country to support this,” stated Nikki Haley, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. “As long as Russia sits on the council with China and Venezuela, it remains a joke and a disgrace to human rights.”