Russia loses bid to reclaim seat in UN's top Human Rights Council

The General Assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine, decisively rejected Russia’s effort to reclaim a seat in the UN’s top human rights council on Tuesday. For two seats on the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Russia was vying with Albania and Bulgaria to represent the East European regional bloc. Bulgaria received 160 votes, Albania 123 votes, and Russia had 83 votes in the secret ballot poll. Even if 83 of the 193 UN members voted against Moscow, despite Moscow’s claims that it has the support of a quiet majority, there is still cause for concern, particularly among Ukraine and its Western allies. Vassily Nebenzia, the UN ambassador for Russia, charged the US on Monday with organizing an effort to keep them out of the council. At a Security Council meeting convened by Ukraine in response to last week’s Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian soldier’s wake in a small town that killed 52 people, Nebenzia stated that “the main phobia of our American colleagues today is electing Russia to the Human Rights Council.” According to diplomats, letters requesting a vote against Russia were issued to many of the 193 members of the General Assembly by the United States and others. One of the non-government letter writers supporting the defeat of Russia was Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee.