The Russian Federation Suspended from the Human Rights Council

08-04-2022

Manon Picard

International Justice and Human Rights Researcher, 

Global Human Rights Defence.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution on the 7th of April 2022 which suspended the Russian Federation from the Human Rights Council. With the 193 members of the General Assembly, 93 nations voted in favour, 24 voted against, whilst 58 abstained. Some of the States who voted against the resolution were the following: Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Vietnam. 

It was not the first time that a State has seen its membership to the Human Rights Council suspended with the same decision being taken in 2011 regarding the repression of protests by ruler Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Additionally, Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations, made reference to the anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Mr. Kyslytsya stated: 

“The genocide in Rwanda was largely due to the indifference of the world’s community, when the UN did not respond to warnings in the UN Security Council and in the General Assembly, a year before the tragedy that we commemorate exactly on this day […] Today, in the case of Ukraine, it is not even a year, because the tragedy is unfolding right now before our eyes”.

After the adoption of the Resolution by the General Assembly, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation, Gennady Kuzmin, stated that Russia had already decided earlier that day to leave the Human Rights Council. Mr. Kuzmin also expressed that the States who are part of the Human Rights Council have “directly been involved in blatant and massive violations of human rights, or abetted those violations”. 

The European Union and the United States of America were part of the members who voted for the adoption of the Resolution as it demonstrated their support to the people of Ukraine, was a signal of accountability and was a “historic moment”. However, other countries such as China, who voted against the Resolution, stated that this decision was a “dangerous precedent” as it would “further intensify confrontation in the field of human rights”.

Sources and further reading:

United Nations. (2022, April 7). UN General Assembly Votes to Suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. UN News. Retrieved on April 8, 2022, from https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115782