Russia seeks to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) more than 15 months after it was dismissed in April last year for attacking Ukraine in February 2022, according to a renewed pitch it has provided to member countries.
In April 2022, Russia was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during an emergency special session called by the UN months after the Russia raid started.
There were 93 votes cast in favor of the action, 24 against it, and 58 abstentions. Officials said the expelled of Russia indicated the global community’s “strong censure of Russian aggressive moves towards a neighbouring State”.
The nation that has been separated from the global stage after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression is now spreading a position paper to UN members to court them for their support, the BBC reported.
Russia has vowed to discover “adequate solutions for human rights issues” and claimed it will stop the council from becoming an “instrument which serves political wills of one group of nations”, in an indirect reference to the West, the report said.
Russia claims it will restore its global credibility at the UN after its forces and government have been consistently accused of human rights misuse in Ukraine and within its borders, according to the diplomats.
After the move in a statement from April previous year, the UN issued a “grave concern” over human rights issues in Ukraine.
The official statement read, “By the text, the Assembly expressed its grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, noting that the violations were of such a degree that the Russian Federation must forfeit its membership in the intergovernmental body until a review is considered appropriate.”
The Ukraine’s delegate had told the session that the Russian Federation had instrumentalized its position on the UNHRC “to spread lies almost daily.”
Independent UN-backed human rights experts said they have carried up continued evidence of alleged war offenses executed by Russian forces in Ukraine, including torture – some of it with such “brutality” that it led to casualties – and rape of women aged up to 83 years old.
Members of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine also voiced considerations about allegations of genocide by Russian forces and said they’re watching into them.
The team said its evidence revealed offenses executed on both sides, but considerably more abuses – and a wider array of them – were executed by Russian forces than by Ukrainian troops.
