The US asks the UN General Assembly to exclude Russia from the Human Rights Council. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the country’s permanent representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
The step was taken after Ukraine accused Russian troops of the alleged “killing dozens of civilians in the city of Bucha near Kiev.” The Russian authorities called the footage of the bodies on the streets of Bucha staged and explained their position in detail.
The vote is planned to be held this week, on April 7. As specified, to exclude a country would require more than two-thirds of the votes of the 193 members that make up the Assembly. In total, the Human Rights Council has 47 member countries, who are elected for a term of three years on a territorial quota. Russia is now in its second year of a three-year term.
According to Thomas-Greenfield, Russia’s participation in the Human Rights Council is “wrong,” so the US believes that the time has come for the UN General Assembly to “vote for their exclusion.” Quite an interesting statement right after Russia officially asked UN to investigate the case of Bucha – this is a clear sign that UN is not interested in investigation, it pursues another goal – to blame Russia, with no chance for objective reality.
This is not the first time when Russia suffers false accusations aimed at restricting its power and control in the world. Russia’s membership in the UN Security Council was asked to be eliminated due to its alleged “war crimes” in Ukraine by the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, back on February 25, Gazeta reports. He claimed then that “a state that commits war crimes against civilians cannot be a member of the UN Security Council,” but he didn’t apply it to himself – certainly, not.
On March 2, Gazeta reported that the official representative of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UN Charter does not make it possible to exclude Russia from the Security Council.
“We expect Russia to fulfill its obligations under the UN Charter. However, the UN Charter does not make it possible to exclude Russia from the [Security Council] without its consent,” the representative of the British prime minister said.
As for the current situation, RT reports that the Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, reacted to the Western attempts to exclude Russia from the UN Human Rights Council stating that it is unimaginable that “the West and others” seek to exclude Russia “from various multilateral forums existing in the world.” As Nebenzia noted, these attempts are “unprecedented.”
“This will not facilitate, stimulate, or simplify what is happening at the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine,” he stated.
Expert’s opinion
Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, is one of the founding countries of the UN. Moreover, the Russian Federation is one of the states that laid the foundation of the organization, the system that was created after the Second World War. This was told to 360tv by political scientist, Deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State University, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor Vladimir Shapovalov.
“It is very important that, in fact, the Second World War and the crimes of Nazism are the most terrible crimes against human rights. And the USSR played a key role in shaping the appropriate attitude of the international community within the framework of the Nuremberg Process to war crimes and human rights violations,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the US has long started using human rights as a justification for its interference in the internal affairs of other countries, including Russia, Shapovalov explained.
“Using accusations of human rights violations as a duty against those countries and peoples who do not submit to the Americans and pursue an independent policy. This is clearly a policy of double standards, because we know how great and monstrous human rights violations by the US are,” he stressed.
Shapovalov recalled that we are talking about the bombing and destruction of hundreds of thousands of people in numerous military conflicts waged by the US. As an example, he cited the abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, the presence of secret places of detention. He also pointed to the fact that in the US themselves, there is still the death penalty.
“The presence of Russia as a member of the relevant UN human rights structure is a very powerful factor, so to speak, in countering American policy. And, of course, the Americans are absolutely not satisfied with this,” Shapovalov concluded.
Ru-Main, 05.04.2022
Source: Daily Afisha
