A spokesperson for the council announced on Friday that the United Nations General Assembly will elect an eastern European country to replace Russia on the Human Rights Council, after its exit from that body.
On Thursday, the General Assembly suspended Russia’s participation in the Human Rights Council, to which Russia responded by withdrawing from the council and leaving a vacant seat..
This seat must be filled by another country, to be chosen in a vote that has not yet been scheduled, Rolando Gomez’s spokesman said at a press conference held today.
The Human Rights Council is made up of 47 countries, and it must include six countries from the Group of Eastern European countries, and after the departure of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Montenegro remain in its membership. and Armenia.
Russia’s suspension of membership, in response to alleged abuses committed by the Russian military in Ukraine, was approved by 93 votes to 24 against, with 58 abstentions.
Since the creation of the Human Rights Council 16 years ago, only one country has been suspended: Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, in response to the suppression of the 2011 protests, although it was readmitted months later.
The resolution, proposed by the United States and supported by the United Kingdom, was introduced after the Ukrainian authorities denounced the discovery of more than 400 bodies of civilians in the streets of the city of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, buried in mass graves. Or on the streets and deserted buildings, where some were found bound or mutilated.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing a “genocide” in Ukraine after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced what he described as a “deliberate massacre”.
Among the 24 countries that voted against the resolution, in addition to Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba, Syria, North Korea, Nicaragua and Iran, and among the countries that abstained are Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, India and Mexico.
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