With Israeli backing, UN General Assembly suspends Russia from Human Rights Council

By ToI Staff and AFP 7 April 2022, 7:10 pm

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Vote results at the UN General Assembly on a motion to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. (Courtesy)

The UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

Of the 193 members of the assembly, 93 vote in favor of suspension while 24 vote against and 58 abstain.

It is the second-ever suspension of a country from the council. Libya was the first, in 2011.

Israel is one of the backers of suspension. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid says in a statement: “The vote today does not change our position toward the UNHRC, a body that is extremist, morally deficient, biased and anti-Israeli at its core, and which has been used since its founding as a political tool by countries that are the world’s chief rights abusers, among other things, to attack Israel.”