The UN General Assembly is voting Thursday on a U.S.-initiated resolution to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from the region around Ukraine's capital.
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.”
The General Assembly voted 140-5 with 38 abstentions on March 24 on a resolution blaming Russia for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and urging an immediate ceasefire and protection for millions of civilians and the homes, schools and hospitals critical to their survival. She issue is simple, she said: “The images out of Bucha and devastation across Ukraine require us now to match our words with action.”
Russia called on an unspecified number of countries to vote “no,” saying an abstention or not voting would be considered an unfriendly act and would affect bilateral relations. Russia’s ambassador in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, called the U.S. action “unfounded and purely emotional bravado that looks good on camera -- just how the U.S. likes it.”
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