New Delhi: India abstained yet again at the UN General Assembly voting on Thursday (April 7).
An Emergency Special Session of the 193-member UN body resumed on Thursday, April 7, over the draft resolution to suspend Russia. 93 members voted in favour of the resolution, while 24 were against it, and 58 nations abstained.
India abstained from the resolution that was adopted in the UN General Assembly.
“India abstained on the UN General Assembly vote this morning. I made a statement of Explanation of Vote,” India’s Permanent Representative at the UN T S Tirumurti tweeted.
“India has been at the forefront of protecting human rights, right from the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We firmly believe that all decisions should be taken fully respecting due process, as all our democratic polity and structures enjoin us to do. This applies to the international organisations as well, particularly the United Nations,” he added.
“War criminals have no place in UN bodies aimed at protecting human rights,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted in response. “Grateful to all member states which … chose the right side of history.”
The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, had launched the effort to suspend Russia from the 47-member human rights council with the world still recoiling from images of mass graves and corpses strewn in the streets of Bucha following Russian soldiers’ retreat.
The UN General Assembly needed to vote in favour of two-thirds of the countries present and vote to remove Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
The measure suspends Russia’s membership in the Council and would launch a review of the matter if the UN deems it appropriate.
The United States ambassador to the United Nations made a case for seeking the suspension of Russia.
“Russia should not have a position of authority in a body whose purpose — whose very purpose — is to promote respect for human rights. Not only is it the height of hypocrisy — it is dangerous,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
