THE Russia failed today to regain a seat at UN Human Rights Councilfrom which it was ostracized after its invasion of Ukraine, however it gathered 83 votes in its favor, in a total of 193 countries.

The UN General Assembly was to renew today 15 of the 47 seats of this Council, based in Geneva, for the period 2024-26. The countries are divided by geographical region and usually each group pre-selects the candidates for the seats. The General Assembly approves the nominations without any particular problems. This year, however, in two groups of countries the candidates were more than the seats to be filled: in Latin America (Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Peru, four candidates for 3 seats) and in Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Russia, three candidates for 2 seats).

Days after the Russian strike in the Ukrainian village of Khroza, where 52 people were killed, all eyes were on the Russian candidacy – with some concern on the part of the West, given that the vote is secret and many developing countries resent that all the attention is recently focused on Ukraine.

THE Bulgaria and Albania were elected with 160 and 123 votes, Russia got only 83.

“The UN member states have sent a strong message to the Russian authorities: a government responsible for countless war crimes and crimes against humanity has no place at the Human Rights Council,” commented Louis Charbonneau of the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.

Many Western diplomats have warned in recent days not to re-elect Russia to the Council. The General Assembly “must make an important choice to demonstrate that it does not confuse the arsonist with the firefighter,” Albania’s UN ambassador Ferit Hoxha commented on Monday during the Security Council meeting on the Hroza massacre. “Those who attack their neighbors, who kill innocents, who deliberately destroy political infrastructure, bridges, grain warehouses, who displace children and are proud of it, those who use torture and sexual violence as a weapon, who brazenly violate international law and human rights have no place in the Human Rights Council,” he stressed.

“The re-election of Russia to this body, while it continues to commit war crimes and other atrocities, would be a horrible blot on the credibility” of United Statessaid the deputy US representative, Robert Wood.

In October 2020, Russia was elected to the Council for three years, with 158 votes in favor – the other Eastern European seat was taken by Ukraine, with 166 votes. As in April 2022, the General Assembly suspended Moscow’s participation in this body, with 93 votes in favor, 24 against and 58 abstentions.

The other Council members elected or re-elected today for 2024-26 are China, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, France, Netherlands, Brazil , Cuba and the Dominican Republic.