Russia war news: Vladmir Putin seeks to rejoin UN Human Rights Council | World News

Russia is seeking to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) after it was expelled from the organisation last April following its invasion of Ukraine.

The council ejected Russia after calling an emergency session last year, with officials claiming the move signalled the international community’s ‘strong censure of Moscow’s aggressive actions towards a neighbouring State’.

But now Russian diplomats are seeking to get their country re-elected to the council for a fresh three-year term.

The vote, set to take place next month, will be seen as a key test of Russia’s international standing after more than 18 months of isolation on the world stage.

In a document outlining their position, seen by the BBC, Moscow promised to find ‘adequate solutions for human rights issues’ and claimed it will prevent the council from becoming an ‘instrument which serves political wills of one group of countries’- an indirect reference to the west.

Based in Geneva, the UNHRC has 47 members, each elected for a three-year term.

The next elections, due on 10 October, will see Russia compete with Albania and Bulgaria for the two seats on the council reserved for central and eastern European countries.

Diplomats say Russia is seeking to restore its international credibility after facing accusations of human rights abuses, war crimes and genocide in Ukraine.

The latest allegations, presented to the UNHRC on Monday, provided fresh evidence that Russia had engaged in torture, rape and attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Earlier this month, a report by three campaign groups- UN Watch, the Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights – concluded Russia was ‘unqualified’ for membership of the HRC.

‘Re-electing Russia to the council now, while its war on Ukraine is still ongoing, would be counterproductive for human rights and would send a message that the UN is not serious about holding Russia accountable for its crimes in Ukraine,’ the report said.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said Russia had committed atrocities in Ukraine, its leader had been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court and had shown utter contempt for the UN Charter.

‘The idea that Russia could return to the Human Rights Council is an affront to the very concept of human rights and a dangerous backwards step that would damage its credibility,’ he said.

‘The government should work intensively with countries who have abstained in the past to make the case that the essential values of the UN must be upheld.’

The previous vote saw 93 members of the UN general assembly voting in favour of expelling Russia from the council, 24 against and 58 abstaining. In its position paper, Russia blames ‘the United States and its allies’ for stripping them of their membership.

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