U.S. to Seek Russia’s Removal from U.N. Human Rights Council after Mass Killings

Russia’s mass killings of Ukrainian civilians in the city of Bucha has persuaded the Biden administration to seek Moscow’s removal from the U.N. Human Rights Council after a monthlong delay.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told reporters in Romania today that she would press for Russia’s suspension from the global human-rights body over the massacre.

“I am immediately returning back to New York to do two things,” she said, during a press conference following a meeting with Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciuca. “One: I will take this to the Security Council tomorrow morning and address Russia’s actions firmly and directly. Two: In close coordination with Ukraine, European countries, and other partners at the UN, we’re going to seek Russia’s suspension from the U.N. Human Rights Council.”

The Human Rights Council has faced persistent criticism for giving an international platform to human-rights-abusing regimes, including Russia, China, and Cuba. The dictatorships that hold membership in the body often use their status for propaganda purposes and to advance criticism of Western countries intended to deflect from their own human-rights records.

In early March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a videotaped address to the body, questioned how Russia could be allowed to remain a member, given its invasion of Ukraine “while committing horrific human-rights abuses and causing massive humanitarian suffering.”

Despite Blinken’s suggestion that Russia shouldn’t remain a member, U.S. officials declined to work to expel Russia during the first month of its invasion of Ukraine.

Last Monday, a bipartisan group of senators, including Senators Bob Menendez and Jim Risch, the top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the Biden administration to seek Russia’s expulsion from the council.

“Swift action must be taken to show the world the United States and our allies will not stand for indiscriminate and unprovoked attacks on civilians and democracies,” they wrote in a letter to Thomas-Greenfield.

Asked on Friday about the letter, a senior administration official told reporters that the U.S. was “reviewing” Russia’s participation at the U.N.

Removing Russia from the council requires a two-thirds-majority vote in the U.N. General Assembly. While that’s typically a near-insurmountable bar to clear, the U.S.-led push is “guaranteed to pass,” according to Hillel Neuer, who leads the watchdog group U.N. Watch.

Neuer tweeted that only a few countries are expected to vote against the resolution and that countries that decline to support it but don’t vote No won’t be counted against the required two-thirds threshold.

While the U.N. secretary-general’s office weighed in against an effort to remove Russia from the council late last month, warning against “setting a dangerous precedent,” there’s little that it can do to prevent a vote on the matter.

At this stage, removing Russia from the Human Rights Council is a largely symbolic measure, but it could well pave the way for a broader campaign resulting in Russia’s further isolation from other international bodies.