Photos and videos show dozens if not hundreds of murdered civilians on the streets of Bucha, some of them appearing to have been shot in the back of the head after their hands were tied. Continue reading
The UN General Assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. Hungary also voted in favor of the suspension. Following the vote, the Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Gennady Kuzmin, announced that Russia will withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council with immediate effect.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
The General Assembly’s draft resolution states that “the right to membership in the Human Rights Council will be suspended for any member that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights.”
Prior to the vote, Ukraine’s UN Ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kislytsia, accused Russia of “heinous crimes,” referring to the killing of civilians in Bucha. Russia’s representative, Gennady Kuzmin, condemned the General Assembly’s decision, joined by North Korea and Russia’s ally, Syria.
This is the third UN General Assembly resolution adopted since Russia’s war on Ukraine began on February 24. The previous two resolutions, which also condemned Russia, were supported by 141 and 140 Member States, respectively.
“I am authorized to announce the following: the Russian Federation has decided to withdraw early from its membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council, effective April 7, 2022,” said the deputy Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Gennady Kuzmin, after the vote in the UN General Assembly.
Calling the vote illegal and politically motivated, Kuzmin said it served “as a demonstrative punishment of a sovereign UN member state with an independent domestic and foreign policy.”
Featured photo by Mihail Klimentyev/Szputnyik/Kreml pool/EPA/MTI