It was a rare, if not unprecedented rebuke against one of the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body over allegations of horrific rights violations by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, which the United States and Ukraine have called tantamount to war crimes. It was a rare, if not unprecedented rebuke against one of the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council. The vote on the U.S. initiated resolution was 93-24 with 58 abstentions, significantly lower than the vote on two resolutions the assembly adopted last month demanding an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, withdrawal of all Russian troops and protection for civilians. Both of those resolutions were approved by at least 140 nations. Russia’s deputy ambassador Gennady Kuzmin announced after the vote that Russia withdrew from the Human Rights Council earlier Thursday, before the assembly took action, apparently in expectation of the result. He accused the council of being monopolized by a group of countries with “short-term political and economic interests” that he accused of “blatant and massive violations of human rights.” The Geneva-based Human Rights Council is tasked with spotlighting and approving investigations of rights violations including in Syria and in late March in Ukraine. And it does periodic reviews of the human rights situation in all 193 U.N. member nations. The 47-member council was created in 2006 to replace a commission discredited because of some members’ poor rights records. The new council soon faced similar criticism, including that rights abusers sought seats to protect themselves and their allies, and for focusing on Israel. Along with Russia, other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France, and the United States, which rejoined this year — currently have seats on the Human Rights Council. Other members with widely questioned rights records along with China include Eritrea, Venezuela, Sudan and Libya. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said when the U.S. was elected to the council last year that it has an important role in “documenting atrocities in order to hold wrongdoers accountable.” And he said the United States and other countries “must push back against attempts to subvert the ideals upon which the Human Rights Council was founded.
