UNITED NATIONS
\nThe UN General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from its human rights council following allegations that Russian soldiers committed systematic human rights violations in Ukraine.
\nThe United States initiated the resolution, which received 93 votes in favour, while 24 countries voted against. Pakistan and India were among the 58 countries that abstained.
\nOther South Asian nations \u2014 Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka \u2014 also abstained, although the Biden administration had sent its senior envoys to these countries before the vote to persuade them to support the move.
\nIndia participated in the debate, acknowledging that the \u2018human rights situation in Ukraine has deteriorated,\u2019 but decided not to vote. Pakistan did not participate in the debate.
\nIn the Middle East, Iran voted against the resolution while Saudi Arabia abstained, reflecting recent tensions in its ties with Washington. Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also abstained.
\nThe US-initiated resolution needed a two-thirds majority of the votes cast to pass, and it easily reached that target \u2014 93-24 \u2014 as abstentions do not count.
\nThe vote makes Russia the first permanent member of the UN Security Council to have its membership of the UN Human Rights Council suspended. Russia was in its second year of a three-year term on the Geneva-based council.
\nUrging nations in the 193-member General Assembly to vote for the resolution, the United States said that \u201cMoscow\u2019s participation in the top human rights body is a farce\u201d. Nations that commit \u201cgross and systematic\u201d violations of human rights did not belong in the council, it added. Before the vote, Ukrainian UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya urged countries to support the resolution claiming that Russian troops had killed \u201cthousands of peaceful residents\u201d in Bucha and other cities and villages across Ukraine.
\nGennady Kuzmin, Deputy Russian Ambassador, however, called for countries to \u201cvote against the attempt by western countries and their allies to destroy the existing human rights architecture\u201d in the body. In Berlin, the Group of Seven industrialised nations also supported the move to suspend Russia from the UN\u2019s human rights body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS The UN General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from its human rights council following allegations that Russian soldiers committed systematic human rights violations in Ukraine. The United States initiated the resolution, which received 93 votes in favour, while 24 countries voted against. Pakistan and India were among the 58 countries that abstained. Other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n