MOSCOW — Russia will not participate in
Thursday’s special session of the UN Human Rights Council on
Ukraine, the
foreign ministry said Tuesday, as the UN General Assembly in New York elected
the Czech Republic to take Moscow’s vacated seat on the body.
اضافة اعلان
The Council announced on Monday that it would hold a
special session at Kyiv’s request to examine “the deteriorating human rights
situation in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression”.
Though Moscow was suspended from the
UN’s top rights
body, it would still have been allowed to participate due to its observer
status.
But Russian
foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said “the Russian delegation will
not legitimize with its presence this new political show organized under the
guise of an extraordinary session”.
“Unfortunately, our arguments and explanations on
the true objectives of this special military operation and the real situation
on the ground have been completely ignored,” she said in a statement.
“It is evident that they will not be heard this time
either” during the West’s “new anti-Russian measure”.
Russia was a member of the Human Rights Council
until the
UN General Assembly voted on April 7 to suspend it from the body and
from sitting in judgment on other nations’ human rights records.
Russia then immediately withdrew from the council,
and now has observer status.
On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly
voted to place the Czech Republic on the rights council. Its term will end on
December 31, 2023.
Thursday’s council meeting on Ukraine will be its
first since Russia was ousted from the body.
During an urgent debate on Ukraine, the body voted on March
4 to trigger a commission of inquiry — the highest-possible level of
investigation — into alleged Russian violations during what
Moscow calls its
“special military operation” launched in neighboring Ukraine on February 24.
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