Russia Seeks to Reclaim Seat on UN Rights Body

Russia is seeking to reclaim its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council after it was suspended by the General Assembly in April 2022 following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The Human Rights Council must be protected from misuse as a tool for settling political scores and from practice of double standards,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told attendees at a reception his mission held recently to mark their candidacy, according to remarks published on the mission’s website. “Those are tactics of certain states that proclaim themselves to be “human rights champions.”

In a vote of 93 in favor, 24 against and 58 countries abstaining, the General Assembly voted Russia off the HRC last year. At the same meeting, Russia announced it was resigning from the rights body. The Czech Republic replaced Russia on the council for the remainder of its term.

On Tuesday, the General Assembly will vote by secret ballot to elect 15 members for three-year terms to the 47-member Geneva-based rights body.

There is risk for Moscow, as it is running against Albania and Bulgaria for only two available seats. Since its invasion of Ukraine, the General Assembly has considered six resolutions related to Russia, and Moscow has lost them all — three by an overwhelming majority of votes.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, said the vote could be close, and Moscow may be counting on countries that do not want to support it publicly to vote for it in private, since it is a secret ballot.

“I suspect Russia believes it can win or at least get enough votes to show that it is not entirely isolated at the U.N.,” Gowan told VOA. “It could spin even a narrow defeat as proof that it is regaining friends diplomatically.”

He notes that Western diplomats recently warned that Russia had a solid lead over Albania, although the gap may be closing a bit as the vote nears.

Rights advocates say in addition to atrocities carried out in Ukraine, the Kremlin has tightened its restrictions on domestic rights and freedoms since the invasion and does not deserve to return to the HRC.

“In the past year-and-a-half, it has been adopting and enforcing laws to silence and punish critics and persecute any genuine political opposition,” said Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch’s associate director of Europe and Central Asia.

Countries elected to the HRC are expected to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” both at home and abroad. Rights advocates warn that countries with poor rights records use their position on the council as a cover for their abuses.

China, which is currently a member, is seeking a second term and has a strong chance of obtaining the necessary simple majority, as it is running on what is known as a “clean slate,” an equal number of candidates for available seats.

In their Asian regional group, China, Japan, Kuwait and Indonesia are looking to fill four available seats. The lack of real competition significantly raises the odds of their achieving the simple majority of votes needed.

“U.N. member states do have a choice; they do not have to vote for China,” said HRW’s U.N. director, Louis Charbonneau. “They can leave that part blank. We can leave an empty seat in the Human Rights Council and have another special election in the future, come back and find a country qualified to fill it.”

While he acknowledges that it is a bit of a long shot, he said, “We’d love to see it happen,” as “they don’t belong there.”

China’s human rights violations are well known. At home, Beijing arbitrarily arrests and detains government critics and human rights defenders and has detained as many as one million ethnic Uyghur Muslims in “reeducation camps” in its Xinjiang province. It has also cracked down on freedoms in Hong Kong and Tibet.

Also under the spotlight for their poor human rights records are candidates Cuba and Burundi.

In addition to the countries already mentioned, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Peru are competing with Cuba for three seats in the Latin America and Caribbean group; Burundi, Malawi, Ghana and Ivory Coast are running a clean slate in the African bloc; and France and the Netherlands are running uncontested in the Western group.

Winners will begin their three-year terms in January 2024. 
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