Russia fails to secure seat on UN Human Rights Council

A few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the United Nations General Assembly suspended Russia's membership in the Human Rights Council. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Russia has not secured a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council during a vote at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The country’s membership in the Council was suspended after the attack on Ukraine.

Bulgaria and Albania received the necessary majority of the votes from the 193 UN members to secure the places of Eastern European states during the UN General Assembly in New York. Bulgaria received 160 votes, Albania 123, and 83 countries voted for Russia.

+ Why the vote on Russia was a credibility test for the Human Rights Council

A few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the United Nations General Assembly suspended Russia’s membership in the Human Rights Council. Moscow then declared its membership prematurely terminated. At that time, 93 members voted for a suspension resolution introduced by Great Britain and the US, 58 members abstained and 24 members voted against.

“UN member states have sent a strong signal to the Russian leadership that a government responsible for countless war crimes and crimes against humanity does not belong on the Human Rights Council,” said Louis Charbonneau, director of Human Rights Watch. He lamented that China and Burundi were elected to the committee due to a lack of competitors in Asia and Africa. Cuba also made a significant entry into the Council.

The election of new members this year came at a time when many countries, particularly in the so-called Global South, are struggling to follow the hard line towards Russia pursued by Western industrialised nations. States in Asia, Africa and Latin America want peace negotiations soon, also to give their own conflicts and interests more space. Some states are also dependent on Russia to a certain extent.

The UN Human Rights Council is a sub-organ of the General Assembly founded in 2006 as the successor to the UN Human Rights Commission and located in Geneva. Its decisions are not legally binding but have moral weight. It consists of 47 member states, which are elected by secret ballot every three years.

For Western Europe, the Netherlands and France were chosen without competition.

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