Moscow will interpret a failure to vote against its ouster from the Human
Rights Council as a show of support for the U.S.

APRIL 6, 2022, 4:23 PM
Russia, facing the likelihood of being suspended from the United Nations
Human Rights Council on Thursday, on Wednesday issued a veiled threat to
some member states: Failure to vote against Moscow’s ouster would be
interpreted as a show of support for a U.S.-led campaign to isolate Russia.

The warning—which was expressed in a letter to select members obtained by
Foreign Policy—raised concern among U.N. delegates that Moscow, which
wields enormous diplomatic influence at the U.N., may retaliate against
states that back the American-led initiative. The move comes as the United
States and other Western allies are preparing the groundwork for a
Thursday vote in the 193-member General Assembly that would expel Russia
from the U.N.’s premier human rights body.

The Russian letter, sent to African, Asian, Latin American, and Caribbean
nations, appears directed at smaller, developing countries seeking to
avoid being drawn into the big-power fight over Ukraine. These nations are
more likely to cast an abstention or decline to show up for the vote.

According to the Russian letter, the move to expel Russia from the rights
council is “another step to punish our country for independent internal
and foreign policy.” It is “in line with Western countries’ efforts to
preserve their domination and total control in the world,” as well as
their “‘human rights neocolonial’ policy in international affairs.”
Moreover, the letter says, the move “will allow a small group of Western
countries to unimpededly dictate their vision of human rights and to use
human rights issues as an instrument of political pressure and punishment
of ‘unfavorable’ states.”

It goes on to state, “an equidistant voting position (abstention or
non-participation) will serve the goal of the United States and be
considered accordingly by the Russian Federation.” The letter does not
specify what the consequence of an abstention or non-vote would have on
relations with Moscow, but one senior ambassador who read the letter said
it signaled Russia’s intention to retaliate diplomatically against
countries that did not support Moscow.

Following reports of Russian atrocities in the city of Bucha in Ukraine,
the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on
Monday said the United States would press for a vote in the General
Assembly to suspend Russia’s membership. “Russia’s participation on the
Human Rights Council is a farce,” Thomas-Greenfield said on a visit to
Romania. “And it is wrong, which is why we believe it is time the UN
General Assembly vote to remove them.”

Under the terms of a March 2006 resolution, the U.N. General Assembly can
suspend a member of the Human Rights Council that “commits gross and
systematic violations of human rights.”

As of Wednesday morning, about 50 countries had agreed to co-sponsor the
resolution. The preliminary list of co-sponsors was dominated by Western
governments. More than half the co-sponsors were European, and there was
only a single African country: Liberia.

“What we’re hearing is it looks pretty clear Russia will get suspended,”
said Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “I have
heard Russia has been lobbying member states and warning them that even
abstentions would be considered as hostile acts.”

In New York, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also protested a
separate decision by his British counterpart, Barbara Woodward—who is
serving this month as president of the U.N. Security Council—to invite
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to brief the Security Council
virtually Tuesday. Nebenzia argued that U.N. Security Council rules
established after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic require that
member state representatives address the council in person.

Nebenzia also characterized Woodward’s decision to allow the Ukrainian
delegation to play a video of alleged Russian atrocities in the council as
a “grave abuse” of her role as council president. “Such practice
undermines the foundation and spirit of the work of the UNSC. In-person
participation, diplomacy and negotiations are the core principles of the
UNSC and its Chamber,” he wrote in a letter to Woodward on Tuesday.

Nebenzia warned that further similar steps by the United Kingdom could
risk having “implications on our future work and on the mood in the
Council in general.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/06/russia-un-human-rights-council/