The UN suspends Russia from the Human Rights Council

The UN General Assembly, at the request of the US, voted to suspend Russia from the Geneva Human Rights Council.
93 countries in favor, 24 against (obviously in addition to Russia, also China) and 58 abstentions. To approve it, a two-thirds majority of the voting countries were needed.
In the draft resolution – Italy was also among the co-sponsors – it asked to “suspend Russia’s right to be part of the Council, expressing grave concern for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, in particular for reports of violations and abuses of international humanitarian law by Moscow ”. The last time the UN voted to expel a country from the Council was in 2011: then it was Libya’s turn.
The answer to Zelensky’s appeal
The decision of the General Assembly is in fact a first response by the UN to the requests (and accusations) of Ukrainian President Zelensky, who, precisely in video connection with the United Nations, had wondered what the UN was for if, in the face of attacks and heinous war crimes such as those committed by Russia, were unable to make any decisions. “If the only thing that is produced are words, then it is better to dissolve the United Nations,” the president had declared provocatively. Words essentially reiterated before the vote in today’s Assembly by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya. “Everyone in the General Assembly has the opportunity to make the morally right decision. If they don’t, it’s their fault, and they have to blame themselves. ‘
What the Council is and what it promotes
The Human Rights Council, a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, based in Geneva, was created in 2006 to replace the Commission on Human Rights, with the task of promoting universal respect and protection of human rights, to intervene in case of their violation and to favor the coordination of the structures operating in the United Nations system.
The Council is made up of 47 member states (13 from Asia, 13 from Africa, 8 from Latin America, 7 from the Western Group and 6 from Eastern Europe), elected in rotation by the General Assembly for an initial period of three years, renewable no more than two consecutive times. The Council meets in Geneva in 3 ordinary sessions per year (February, May and September) for a total of 10 weeks of work, in addition to the special sessions dedicated to individual urgent matters, and convened at the request of at least 1/3 of the members .
Russia already outside the Council of Europe
The war in Ukraine had already cost Russia exclusion from the Council of Europe, the international organization founded in 1949 to defend democracy and human rights and which includes all the states of the continent except Belarus.