When Vladimir Putin’s Russia ran for election to the UNHRC, UN Watch led the campaign to fact-check and expose their lies. Our objections to electing Russia were published as official documents by the United Nations and circulated to diplomats. We invited Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza -twice poisoned in Moscow-to appeal to the United Nations NOT to elect the Putin regime to the world’s highest human rights body. He said it would be “an embodiment of the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.”
- Feb. 2022: As soon as Russia attacked Ukraine, UN Watch led the call on democracies to expel Russia from the UNHRC. As we predicted, the international community had to wait for a new atrocity-the slaughter in Bucha-to take action to expel Russia from the UN’s top human rights body.
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Russia sits on the U.N. Human Rights Council. This should shame the world.
In 2011, when Col. Qaddafi started attacking his own people, the Western democracies successfully moved to expel Libya from the UNHRC.
I urge US, EU, Canada to invoke Res. 60/251 and expel Putin. pic.twitter.com/8YyeSfogWL
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 25, 2022
- March 1, 2022: US Secretary of State Tony Blinken addressed the UN Human Rights Council and implied that Russia did not belong there.
- March 2, 2022: Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told the Council directly: “The only way to retain the credibility of the Human Rights Council is to suspend the membership of Russia.”
- March 29, 2022: In an extraordinary statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman opposed removing Russia, saying it would be “setting a dangerous precedent.” (March 29, 2022 briefing | Video)
- March 31, 2022: We took the floor at the United Nations Human Rights Council to formally demand that they remove Russia. Our appeal entered the record:
I took the floor at the United Nations to ask why they repeatedly elect the world’s worst regimes to their top human rights body and then I presented our draft resolution calling for Russia to be expelled. pic.twitter.com/TjUdVbXmPQ
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 31, 2022
- April 3, 2022: We criticized the UN chief for his inappropriate statement defending Russia, and reminded him that, on the contrary, it is the failure to enforce the UNHRC’s own rules on membership duties that would be dangerous; and that the precedent is that, in wake of a 2010-2011 campaign led by UN Watch, Qaddafi’s Libya was removed in 2011 from the Council.
The U.N. legitimized Putin's Russia in 2020 by electing it to the Human Rights Council.
The U.S. can undo this travesty by introducing our draft resolution: https://t.co/SaWv9D17bq
Absurdly, the U.N. chief says removing Russia is “a dangerous precedent.” https://t.co/2sGQnfNd3v
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 3, 2022
- April 3, 2022: We drafted a resolution to remove Russia and circulated it to diplomats, calling on U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield to take the lead at the General Assembly.
We have circulated this draft resolution calling for Russia to be removed from the U.N. Human Rights Council: https://t.co/SaWv9D17bq
Next step is for a U.N. member state to formally introduce it at the General Assembly.
I presented this request in testimony before the UNHRC.🔽 pic.twitter.com/Gy2KDDJkc3
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 3, 2022
- April 7, 2022: The UNHRC votes on a draft resolution to suspend Russia.
