More than 100 diplomats left the Russian foreign minister’s speech at the UN Human Rights Council to protest the invasion of Ukraine.
More than 100 diplomats from about 40 countries left Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s speech at the United Nations in Geneva to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The boycott on Tuesday by envoys from the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and others left only a few diplomats in the hall.
Among others at the meeting of the Human Rights Council was Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, Lavrov’s former deputy.
Envoys from Syria, China and Venezuela remained.
Ukrainian Ambassador Evgenia Filipenko, who led the walk, thanked those who took part in the stunt.
“Thank you very much for this wonderful demonstration of support for the Ukrainians who are fighting for their independence,” she told a crowd gathered around a large Ukrainian flag in front of the hall.
US Ambassadors @USAmbGVA Crocker and @USAmbHRC Taylor was proud to join @UKRinUNOG and colleagues from around the world in today’s dramatic exit from the Human Rights Council in protest of Lavrov’s horrific attempt to justify Russia’s brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Lovr0TtqiH
– US Mission Geneva (@usmissiongeneva) March 1, 2022
Lavrov addressed the Human Rights Council remotely after canceling his visit due to the closure of European airspace for Russian aircraft.
In his speech, the Russian foreign minister justified his country’s attack on Ukraine, accusing the Ukrainian side of human rights violations against the Russian minority.
He also accused the EU of engaging in “Russophobic madness” by supplying deadly weapons to Ukraine during Moscow’s military campaign, which began last Thursday.
Moscow describes the invasion as a “special military operation” aimed at ousting “neo-Nazis” ruling Ukraine.
Diplomats who left Lavrov’s speech said the Human Rights Council “should not be misused as a platform for misinformation.”
“Foreign Minister Lavrov’s grotesque allegations must be exposed about what they are: a cynical distortion of the facts,” said German Ambassador Katarina Stash.
Ukrainian Ambassador Evgenia Filipenko and other delegates gather with Ukrainian flags after leaving a meeting of the Human Rights Council during a video speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov [Denis Balibouse/ Reuters]Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie called Lavrov’s version “false” and “that’s why we wanted to show a very strong position together.”
French Ambassador Jerome Bonafon said that “any invasion is a violation of human rights” and “it is important for the Human Rights Council to show by this issue that it is united with Ukraine and the people of Ukraine.”
The departure came less than an hour after diplomats nearly emptied a nearby room at UN’s European headquarters in Geneva when Lavrov’s video speech was broadcast to the Disarmament Conference, a body set up in 1979 to try to stop the race. in Cold War armaments.