Russia Suspended from UN Human Rights Council For ‘Systematic Abuses’

The UN General Assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.

The resolution received 93 votes in favor, 24 against, and 58 abstentions.

URGENT🚨

The UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council @UN_HRC

In favor: 93

Abstained: 58

Against: 24 pic.twitter.com/6EavdZJspc

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) April 7, 2022

The U.S.-initiated resolution adopted by the 193-member General Assembly expressed “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed his gratitude to the UN members who voted in favor of suspending Russia from the Geneva-based 47-member council, which is the UN’s leading human rights organization.

Russia was in its second year of a three-year term on the council, whose decisions are not legally binding but send important political messages. It also can authorize investigations.

The suspension bars Moscow’s delegation from speaking and voting, but its diplomats could still attend debates.

Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said Russia had committed “horrific human rights violations and abuses that would be equated to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

He called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “beyond the pale” and said Moscow “is not only committing human rights violations, it is shaking the underpinnings of international peace and security.”

Deputy Russian Ambassador to the UN Gennady Kuzmin had 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.”

Kyslytsya responded 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.”

He also cautioned members of the General Assembly against abstaining, quoting 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.”