The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, tweeted, “rejected the resolution suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council, a country essential to an effective, fair and peace that the current Crisis in Europe urgently required”.
“Exclusions do nothing, on the contrary, they damage the credibility and the ability of the international system to create peace,” the head of state published on the social network, adding, “with the decision taken this Wednesday dangerous precedent and further fueling the conflict in Ukraine.
Also via Twitter, Sacha Llorenti, executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), stated that the suspension of Russia as a member of the Human Rights Council “will undermine the fragile legitimacy of this body even more”.
He described the decision as “an example of the crisis in the multilateral system, its political instrumentalization and the double standards of those who use it selectively”.
The resolution was adopted with 93 countries in favor, 24 against and 58 abstentions. In Latin America, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba voted against the proposal, whose Permanent Representative to the UN, Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, warned of the dangers to humanity of US maneuvers at the UN and of the dangers of deploying such a suspension mechanism , which has no equal in any other organ of the multinational organization and which can be used selectively, particularly against the countries of the South.
Of the countries of the Americas, Brazil, El Salvador and Mexico abstained; while Venezuela did not vote because it lost the right due to non-payment of its financial quota for the organization’s expenses.
The Russian Federation had been elected as a member of the Human Rights Council in 2020 by 158 votes and has now been suspended by a smaller number. Using his representative’s voice, he asserted that the General Assembly resolution “presupposes a continuation of US neo-colonialism in international relations,” and dismissed the allegations “based on staged events and widespread fabrication.”