US senators call for Russia’s expulsion from UN Human Rights Council

WASHINGTON – A group of US senators – both Republicans and Democrats – is demanding Russia’s removal from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) following Moscow’s “unprovoked, inhumane, and illegal invasion” of Ukraine.

Led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez and Jim Risch, the lawmakers wrote a letter to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American UN envoy, urging her to introduce a resolution to remove Russia from the UNHRC.

The letter cites widespread casualties that have resulted from Russia’s war, which the senators said has included “indiscriminate shelling of apartment buildings, hospitals, and schools and the slaughter of fleeing civilians.”

“The multitude of crimes committed by the Russian Federation, and by Vladimir Putin himself, demonstrates that the Russian government has no intention of upholding international human rights,” the eight Democrats and four Republicans wrote in their letter.

“As such, it is time we consider whether the Russian Federation deserves to reap benefits from an organization whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world,” they added.

The senators said a UNHRC member can be removed from the body via a two-thirds vote in the UN General Assembly if they have engaged “in a pattern of gross and systemic abuses.”