The UN General Assembly will vote this Thursday on a resolution promoted by the United States on the suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council of the organization for the alleged massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
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Last Monday, the US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called for Russia to be stripped of its seat on the Human Rights Council following videos and photos of streets in the city of Bucha covered with corpses of what appeared to be be civilians.
At the request of the US representative; General Assembly spokeswoman Paulina Kubiak said the emergency special session on Ukraine will resume on Thursday, when the resolution to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council is put to a vote.
.@USAmbUN Linda Thomas-Greenfield wants to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. “I have no doubt that we can defeat Russia here on the Human Rights Council. They don’t deserve to be on the Human Rights Council,” she tells me. “We will get the 2/3 vote required.” pic.twitter.com/Ak5DQRWm00
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour)
April 6, 2022
A UN General Assembly resolution of March 2006 indicates that the membership rights of a country that commits serious and systematic violations of human rights can be suspended.
To be approved, the measure against Russia would have to have the vote of at least two-thirds of the members of the assembly, without counting abstentions in the calculation.
#Russia‘s membership in the #UNSC and especially in Human Rights Council is a mockery not just of #Ukraine but of entire World. Instead of preventing war and protecting victims #A has become a place from which Russia can spread cynical lies and cover up its crimes. pic.twitter.com/yjGOrfExpS
– Linas Linkevicius (@LinkeviciusL)
April 6, 2022
Before the vote, Russia requested the support of allied countries to prevent the US request from prospering.
Russia denounced that the attempt to expel him from the Human Rights Council is political and is backed by countries that want to preserve their dominant position and control over the world.
Moscow denounced that the countries that support the US motion want to continue with “the policy of neo-colonialism of human rights” in international relations.
The Russian representation in the Human Rights entity maintained that Russia’s priority is to promote and defend human rights, including multilaterally in the Human Rights Council.
The Russian ambassador in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, claimed that Washington is exploiting the Ukraine crisis for its own benefit in an attempt to exclude or suspend his country from international organizations.
The possible exclusion of Russia worries the UN because of the consequences it may have for the future of the Human Rights Council.
UN sources explain that suspending Russia opens the door for groups of countries to join forces in the future to remove other powers from the Human Rights Council, even without clear arguments.
The only country to have its council membership rights stripped away was Libya in 2011, when turmoil in the North African country fueled by the US and its allies toppled leader Moammar Gadhafi.
No permanent member of the Security Council has ever had membership of any UN body revoked.
The United States and its Western allies have accused Moscow of the massacre reported last weekend, a fact that has caused a wave of repudiation and rejection of Russia.
Faced with the accusations, Moscow maintains that its forces withdrew from the city days before the events and have indicated that the images and videos have been manipulated.
