Under criticism after the Groza massacre in Ukraine, Russia is trying to win back a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday – a risky bet that will allow it to gauge its international support.
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The UN General Assembly, which expelled Russia from this body set up in Geneva after the invasion of Ukraine, elected 15 new members for the period 2024-2026 on Tuesday.
While the 47 member states are divided by major regions, each regional group generally pre-selects its candidates, who are then easily confirmed by the General Assembly.
But this year two groups have more candidates than seats: Latin America (Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Peru, candidates for 3 seats) and Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria and Russia for 2 seats).
If right-wing defenders also attack the backgrounds of other candidates, it is Russia that is attracting attention.
The General Assembly “must take an important decision to prove that it is not prepared to confuse an arsonist with a firefighter,” Albanian UN Ambassador Ferit Hoxha said during a Security Council meeting on Monday. Security on the Russian attack on the Ukrainian village of Groza, which killed more than 50 people last week.
“Those who attack their neighbors, who kill innocent people, who deliberately destroy civilian infrastructure, ports, grain silos, who deport children and are proud of it, who use torture and sexual violence as weapons, who violate international human rights laws, have no place in the Human Rights Council “, he emphasized.
“Re-electing Russia to this body even as it continues to commit war crimes and other atrocities would be a terrible stain that would undermine the credibility of the United Nations,” added American Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood.
“There is no model of democracy or rogue state, as some sometimes describe it,” defended Russian UN Ambassador Vassili Nebenzia a few days ago. “No member state can claim to be free from human rights violations.”
To be elected on Tuesday, a country needs 97 votes from the 193 member states.
In April 2022, the General Assembly voted to “expel” Russia from the Council with 93 votes in favor and 24 against.
This majority against Russia was less overwhelming than that of the resolutions defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity (around 140 votes), but the Human Rights Council issue was more complex, with certain countries with questionable records on the matter fearing that they would one day suffer the same fate.
The peculiarity of Tuesday’s vote is that it will be held by secret ballot, as many developing countries are tired of the attention that the West is paying to Ukraine.
In this context, Westerners are “worried,” estimates Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group, pointing to the “supposedly silent majority” that Moscow can hopefully count on.
Apart from Russia, human rights advocates are demanding not to vote for China – which, however, does not pose a major risk in the Asia group, which has four candidates for four seats – or for Burundi and Cuba.