The United Nations voted today to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing humanitarian concerns and crimes against humanity brought forth during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, China, a notorious human rights abuser, remains on the council.
“It is important to say (to Russia), ‘We’re not going to allow you to continue to act with such impunity and pretend that you respect human rights,’” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters.
The vote to suspend Russia followed pressure from the United States. The motion cited “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights,” according to Reuters. The vote to suspend Russian was 93 nations in favor, 24 against and 54 abstaining, according to UN News.
“Bucha and dozens of other Ukrainian cities and villages, where thousands of peaceful residents have been killed, tortured, raped, abducted and robbed by the Russian Army, serve as an example of how dramatically far the Russian Federation has gone from its initial declarations in the human rights domain,” Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said, according to UN News. “That is why this case is unique and today’s response is obvious and self-explanatory.”
Russia was elected in 2020 to serve a three-year term on the Human Rights Council along with 14 other members, according to a U.N. release. China, which has publicly supported Russia, is also on the council and was not subject to removal from this gesture.
The move to suspend Russia took place following calls for the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner to investigate the Chinese treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang in an open letter from Human Rights Watch.
The U.S. declared the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims a “genocide” in a State Department report to Congress.
“Secretary Blinken affirmed in January 2021 that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs, who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the report said. “The crimes against humanity include imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilization and persecution.”
Though the Chinese government views itself as responsible for the well-being of its people, that does not mean it serves the people, Rana Siu Inboden, senior fellow with the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas-Austin, said in a Center for Strategic and International Studies podcast.
“The CCP leadership is ruling in such a way that they seem to value accruing power for their own purposes, retaining political control and gaining personal material benefit,” Inboden said in the podcast.
Under Xi Jinping, China has overreached in terms of state power with facial recognition technology and the introduction of the social credit system, Inboden said in the podcast.
