April 8, 2022

BY ALFRED DE ZAYAS

Photo credit: UN Photo / Elma Okic

On 7 April the UN General Assembly decided to suspend Russia’s membership in the Human Rights Council.  This establishes a destructive precedent not only for the future of the Human Rights Council, but for the future of other United Nations institutions.

I do not wish to overestimate the consequences of the GA decision. Obviously, it is a blow to Russia’s prestige, and adds to the general atmosphere of Russophobia that we have seen over the decades. We can expect in the future that efforts will be made to exclude other countries from membership in the Human Rights Council – one could think of excluding several NATO countries for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by their forces during the wars of…