BBC: Russia campaigns at UN to be returned to Human Rights Council
Russia is circulating a position paper among UN member states calling for support for its election to the Human Rights Council. It was expelled from the Council in April 2022 due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Source: BBC, citing a copy of the Russian document, as reported by European Pravda
Details: In the document, quoted by the UK’s broadcaster, Russia promises to "promote the principles of cooperation and strengthening of constructive dialogue based on mutual respect in the Council to find adequate solutions on human rights issues."
Russia also wants to prevent the UN Human Rights Council from becoming "an instrument that serves the political will of a group of countries" that "punishes disloyal governments for their independent foreign policy."
UN diplomats spoken to by the BBC say Russia is waging an "aggressive campaign" offering small countries grain and weapons in exchange for their votes. Therefore, they do not rule out that the Russian Federation may indeed return to the composition of the Council.
The UN Human Rights Council meets in Geneva and consists of 47 members, each elected for a three-year term.
In the next elections on October 10, Russia will compete with Albania and Bulgaria for the two Council seats reserved for Central and Eastern European countries. All 193 members of the UN General Assembly in New York will participate in the vote.
Background:
- On 7 April 2022, the UN General Assembly supported the resolution to suspend the membership of the Russian Federation in the UN Human Rights Council. At the same time, no European state supported Russia in the vote.
- This was the maximum level of punishment in the Human Rights Council – it is impossible to exclude the state. However, as a result, the Russian Federation was deprived of all procedural rights that members of the Council have. However, Russia later stated its "voluntary withdrawal" from the UN Human Rights Council.
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