The day before, under intense pressure from Washington on member countries of the United Nations, a resolution was passed in the General Assembly to suspend Moscow from its membership rights in the Human Rights Council.
The document was adopted by 93 votes in favour, 24 against and 58 abstentions, raising various concerns about double standards and selectivity in dealing with the issue.
Such a suspension mechanism has been strongly challenged within the multilateral organization as it allows a much smaller number than the number of nations that voted to admit a state to the Human Rights Council to later decide on its exclusion.
Russia was elected to that body in 2020 by 158 votes, and the resolution suspending it garnered the support of 93 United Nations member states.
Countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba voted against the suspension, and several delegations expressed serious concerns to the General Assembly about double standards, politicization and a selective approach in dealing with human rights.
The Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Pedro Luis Pedroso, questioned this suspension mechanism, which is unparalleled in any other UN body.
In his opinion, it is no coincidence that the most ardent supporters of the membership suspension clause in the negotiations for the establishment of the new Human Rights Council were developed nations, which showed a clear tendency to blame Southern countries for not adhering to their models of democracy.
These “enthusiastic promoters” have remained tacitly complicit in human rights abuses in Western countries, Pedroso added.
Washington has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, which it describes as “collateral damage,” the displacement of millions, and tremendous destruction around the world, but this assembly has never violated any of its rights, he stressed.
Could the General Assembly one day adopt a resolution suspending the United States’ membership of the Human Rights Council? the Cuban ambassador asked.
This has not happened and it appears that despite their flagrant and massive human rights abuses as a result of invasions and predatory wars against sovereign countries because of their geopolitical interests, it will not, he lamented.
Nor will the suspension clause be used against the state, which has been maintaining a criminal blockade against Cuba for more than 60 years, which is the longest, most blatant, massive and systematic violation of the human rights of a people and a true genocide of an entire nation, Pedroso stressed.
Earlier this week, Washington announced that it was seeking Moscow’s expulsion, citing alleged war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine.
But on numerous occasions, the northern nation has been the center of controversy at this UN body, even by government agencies, over the human rights abuses committed by that country.
Days ahead of Thursday’s vote in the General Assembly, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern about the precedent such a decision could set.
The suspension of Russia’s rights as a member of the Human Rights Council prevents Russia from voting and making proposals in that body. This is the second time the General Assembly has passed such a resolution, the first time in 2011 when Libya was suspended.
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