Serbia voted for Russia's exclusion by UN Human Rights Council

A total of 93 countries, including Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, voted in favour, 24 against and 58 abstained. Russian officials have repeatedly denied that there have been attacks on civilians.

A total of 193 UN General Assembly members were invited to vote for or against, and abstentions were not taken into account. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Grenfield praised yesterday that Russia should not be at the UN Council for Human Rights because it can use that organ as a propaganda tool to express human rights concerns.

Every day we see reports of Russia's lack of human rights interest. Russia's participation in the UN Human Rights Council is a farce. This undermines the credibility of the Council and the UN as a whole”, the ambassador added.

The text of the US resolution, which was voted in, says the UN General Assembly could suspend the right of a country to be a member of the UN Council for Human Rights if that country committed serious and systematic violations of these rights.

Ahead of today's vote at the UN General Assembly, Russia sent a confidential note to the countries, warning that the vote on the American initiative to suspend Moscow from membership in the UN Council for Human Rights would be considered a hostile “”, Reuters reported.

The news agency claimed there was a mirror in the note Russia sent to countries, but they could not specify which countries it was sent to.

“Ven to stress that not only support for such an initiative but also a equally distant position in the vote (abstinance or non-participation) will be considered hostile gesture”, the footnote said.

Russia, Libya are the only suspended in UN Council history

Russia's suspension is not precedent, as Libya is suspended from O membership The HCHR in 2011, due to violence against protesters who opposed Muammar Gaddaf's regime. The UN Council for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a UN General Assembly body consisting of 47 member states that differ periodically. In addition to promoting human rights, the Council has a mission to review regularly the human rights situation in UN member states. Both Ukraine and Russia are members of the Council.

Russia was in the middle of a three-year term that expired in 2023. The UN General Assembly has adopted two resolutions condemning Moscow's actions since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For these resolutions, Serbia also voted, which persistently refused to impose sanctions on the Russian Federation.