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NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTOUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russian attacks to signs of genocide.
The United Nations General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council as world leaders accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes against Ukraine and its civilian population.
Ninety-three members voted for suspension from the 47-member council, meeting the requirement for a two-thirds majority of delegates who are voting. Twenty-four voted against it. Another 58 abstained, but under U.N. rules, they’re not counted toward calculations for a two-thirds majority.
The world has seen images of civilian bodies scattered in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv; apartment buildings destroyed by Russian forces; and reports of Russian soldiers raping Ukranian women and systematically executing civilians. Photos and televised images from Ukraine have shown victims with their hands bound.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the Russian attacks as “signs of genocide.”
Against that backdrop, the General Assembly vote was welcomed by Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, who, in a tweet, expressed gratitude to General Assembly members who “chose the right side of history.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his fellow G7 foreign ministers from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, currently meeting in Brussels, said in a joint statement that it was time to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council.
Only one other country has been suspended from the Human Rights Council during its history: Libya in 2011 after evidence of human rights violations.
Earlier this week, President Zelensky called for Russia’s removal from the U.N. Security Council. Russia holds veto power in the council as one of its permanent members and could veto any attempt to remove it.
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