Russia lost the elections to the Human Rights Council in the UN General Assembly. In the Eastern European region, Bulgaria and Albania won more votes. The term of office of the Geneva-based Council is 3 years, with 1/3 of its members being renewed each year.
“Russia has just significantly lost another vote in the UN General Assembly – this time in the elections to the UN Human Rights Council, to which it wanted to be elected even though it is conducting an aggressive war; the vast majority of countries have shown that they have no chance of doing so,” he wrote on X ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the UN Krzysztof Szczerski.
– Member States UN sent a strong signal to the Russian authorities: there is no place on the Human Rights Council for a government responsible for countless war crimes and crimes against humanity, commented Louis Charbonneau from the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.
UN Human Rights Council
Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council on April 7, 2022, a month and a half after the invasion of Ukraine. On the same day, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, announced that his country had decided to resign from membership in the Council.
The term of office of the Geneva-based Council is 3 years, with 1/3 of its members being renewed each year. The division of seats is based on a geographical key, according to which a certain number of countries must come from particular regions of the world.
On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly renewed the composition of the Council for 2024-2026, electing 15 new members. In addition to Bulgaria and Albania, the following countries were selected: Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Main photo source: X/PLinUN platform