From: slider@anashram.com   
      
   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/   
      
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