Russia Expelled From The UN Human Rights Council

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Thursday banned Russia from its human rights council, following claims that the Russian military committed systematic human rights breaches in Ukraine.
The United States started the resolution, which gained 93 votes in support, while 24 countries voted against it. Pakistan and India were among the 58 countries that abstained.
Other South Asian nations — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka — all abstained, despite the Biden administration having sent its senior envoys to these countries before the vote to convince them to support the action.

India took part in the discussion, noting that the ‘human rights situation in Ukraine has deteriorated,’ but opted not to vote. Pakistan did not take part in the debate.

In the Middle East, Iran voted against the resolution while Saudi Arabia abstained, reflecting recent strains in its ties with Washington. Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also abstained.

The US-initiated resolution needed a two-thirds majority of the votes cast to succeed, and it easily met that objective – 93-24 — as abstentions do not count.

The vote makes Russia the first permanent member of the UN Security Council to have its membership in the UN Human Rights Council terminated. Russia was in the second year of a three-year tenure on the Geneva-based council.

Urging states in the 193-member General Assembly to vote for the resolution, the United States stated that “Moscow’s participation in the highest human rights organisation is a farce”. Nations that conduct “gross and systematic” breaches of human rights did not belong in the council, it added.

Before the voting, Ukrainian UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya encouraged countries to support the resolution saying that Russian soldiers had slain “thousands of civilian residents” in Bucha and other cities and villages across Ukraine.

Gennady Kuzmin, Deputy Russian Ambassador, however, appealed to countries to “vote against the attempt by western countries and their partners to demolish the current human rights architecture” in the body. In Berlin, the Group of Seven industrialised nations also endorsed the proposal to suspend Russia from the UN’s human rights council.