Brazil indicates not to support Russia’s withdrawal from the UN human rights body

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian government has indicated it will abstain on a resolution to be voted on April 7 at the UN (United Nations) General Assembly that will determine whether Russia should be expelled from the Human Rights Council.

Sources at the Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty) explained that the government examined the issue on April 6 and, in principle, the decision was not to vote in favor of the project. After initially voting with the Americans and Europeans in three resolutions that condemned the Russian attacks against Ukraine, Brazil began to adopt a new position in international organizations.

Closer to the position of China, India, and South Africa, Itamaraty did not endorse the Western powers’ projects to isolate Russia in bodies such as the ILO (International Labor Organization), UNESCO, and others. The BRICS also insist that the idea of Joe Biden’s administration to distance Russia from the G20 would not be supported by the bloc of large emerging economies.

This week, the Brazilian government did not adopt the same tone as the United States and Europe, which accused Russia of war crimes at the UN Security Council. For Brazil, the investigations of eventual massacres in Ukraine should occur without any “prejudgment“.

The effort of the Western powers to expel Russia from the Human Rights Council is, in fact, a rare process within the UN. To date, only Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya has been the target of a similar suspension.

For the same fate to be meted out to Russia, the Western powers need to muster two-thirds of the UN’s 193 countries. The hope of Americans and Europeans is based on a vote taken a month ago when 141 countries passed a resolution condemning the Russian invasion. But diplomats warn that expulsion is not the same thing and would involve strategic considerations.

Itamaraty voted alongside the 141 countries that chose to condemn Russia in Brazil’s case. But this time, expulsion is considered a dangerous attitude, including from the point of view of a possible weakening of the multilateral system.

In the draft of the project, the governments of the EU, the United States, Canada, Japan, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Liberia, Costa Rica, and other governments justify the suspension action under the argument of serious abuses and violations of human rights and humanitarian law by Russia.

The initiative was also supported by several NGOs, including the Brazilian NGO Conectas Human Rights. Two weeks ago, alongside other civil society organizations, the entity called for governments to consider suspending Moscow from the Human Rights Council.

Despite the Western offensive, members inside the UN warned that the initiative would come under questioning from China and other countries that will argue that governments like the US also invaded foreign territories without being suspended from international bodies.