Landmark UN Resolution to Oust Russia From Human Rights Council: How Will They Vote?

A landmark vote Thursday in the U.N. General Assembly on whether to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council will put other countries with poor human rights records on the spot. Some of those countries are themselves HRC members.

Those countries have long pushed back at criticism of their presence on the Geneva-based council, and on principle, they oppose any attempt to enforce criteria for membership.

Two General Assembly votes last month critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passed by large margins – 141-5 on March 2 and 140-5 on March 24 – although 35 members abstained in the first and 38 in the second (details below).

Abstentions on both occasions came at little cost for those countries; the measure was widely expected to pass anyway, and by abstaining they avoided antagonizing Russia.

But in Thursday’s vote, abstentions won’t count. The HRC’s founding resolution provides for the suspension of a member “that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights,” in a vote by two-thirds of the “present and voting” members of the General Assembly.