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UN assembly suspends Russia from top human rights body

Published:Thursday | April 7, 2022 | 4:31 PM
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. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from the world organisations 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 UN Security Council.

The vote on the US-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 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, other four permanent members of the UN 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.

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.

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