A completed resolution vote tally to affirm the suspension of the Russian Federation from the United Nations Human Rights Council is displayed during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, April 7, 2022, at United Nations headquarters. UN General Assembly approved a resolution suspending Russia from the world body's leading human rights organization.
John Minchillo / 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.
The vote 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 is the second country to have its membership rights stripped at the Human Rights Council which was established in 2006. In 2011, the assembly suspended Libya when upheaval in the North African country brought down longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield launched the campaign to suspend Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council in the wake of videos and photos of streets in the town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians after Russian soldiers retreated. The deaths have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia, which has vehemently denied its troops were responsible.
Before the vote, Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador had urged members of the United Nations to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body, saying it has committed “horrific human rights violations and abuses that would be equated to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Cemetery workers load the corpses of civilians killed in Bucha into a truck, to be transported to the morgue, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Sergiy Kyslytsya introduced the U.S.-initiated resolution before the 193 members of the General Assembly vote.
“Russia’s actions are beyond the pale,” he said. “Russia is not only committing human rights violations, it is shaking the underpinnings of international peace and security.”
Russia’s deputy ambassador Gennady Kuzmin urged members to vote “no.”
“What we’re seeing today is an attempt by the United States to maintain its dominant position and total control,” he said ahead of the vote. “We reject the untruthful allegations against us, based on staged events and widely circulated fakes.”
Approval required a two-thirds majority of the assembly members that vote “yes” or “no,” with abstentions not counting in the calculation.
Kyslytsya responsed to Russia’s complaints about the proceeding saying: “We have heard, many times, the same perverted logic of the aggressor trying to present itself as the victim.”
And his message to those who would abstain: He quoted the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel: “Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor — never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the call for Russia to be stripped of its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council in the wake of videos and photos of streets in the town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians. The deaths have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia, which has vehemently denied its troops were responsible.
“We believe that the members of the Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine, and we believe that Russia needs to be held accountable,” Thomas-Greenfield said Monday. “Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce.”
While the Human Rights Council is based in Geneva, its members are elected by the 193-nation General Assembly for three-year terms. The March 2006 resolution that established the rights council says the assembly may suspend membership rights of a country “that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.”
No permanent member of the Security Council has ever had its membership revoked from any U.N. body.