Russia’s membership to the Human Rights Council was suspended Thursday after the United Nations General Assembly voted 93 to 24, with 58 abstentions, including Bangladesh, to adopt a resolution.
Other South Asian countries Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives also abstained.
The brief resolution that was approved expresses “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, particularly at the reports of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian Federation, including gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights.”
Explaining their decision not to support the resolution, some countries called it premature, noting that there are ongoing investigations into whether war crimes have occurred, or said it would undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council and the UN.
Others said the resolution reflected American and European geopolitical agendas and what opponents called Western hypocrisy and selective outrage about human rights.
The vote on the US-initiated resolution was 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 the country 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 monopolised 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 UN 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, the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council – the UK, China, France, and the US, which rejoined this year – now have seats on the Human Rights Council.
Other members with widely questioned rights records along with China include Eritrea, Venezuela, Sudan and Libya.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield launched the campaign to suspend Russia from its seat on the 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.
Russia is the second country to have its membership rights stripped at the rights council which was established in 2006.
In 2011, Libya was suspended by the assembly when upheaval in the North African country brought down longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Before the vote, Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya urged assembly members to keep the Human Rights Council from “sinking” and suspend Russia, saying it has committed “horrific human rights violations and abuses that would be equated to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Russia’s 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. “We reject the untruthful allegations against us, based on staged events and widely circulated fakes.”
In an appeal to some member states before the vote, Russia said the attempt to expel it from the Human Rights Council is political and being supported by countries that want to preserve their dominant position and control over the world.
Those nations want to continue “the politics of neo-colonialism of human rights” in international relations, Russia said in the document obtained by The Associated Press, insisting that its priority is to promote and defend human rights, including multilaterally in the Human Rights Council.
Kyslytsya responded to Russia’s complaints saying: “We have heard, many times, the same perverted logic of the aggressor trying to present itself as the victim.”
While the Human Rights Council is based in Geneva, its members are elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms. Russia’s term ends in December 2023.
The March 2006 resolution that established the council says the assembly may suspend membership rights of a country “that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.”
