A US-led effort to unseat Russia from the UN Human Rights Council passed on Thursday by a greater than two-thirds majority after the discovery of hundreds of civilians’ bodies following Russia’s withdrawal from the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The vote in the UN General Assembly, which oversees the 47-member council based in Geneva, was 93 in favour and 24 opposed, including China, with 58 abstentions. Under the council’s 2006 founding documents, a member can be suspended when it “commits gross and systematic violations of human rights”. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield led the call to exclude Russia after photos, videos and satellite imagery showed corpses lying in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and nearby communities, eliciting a global outcry and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia. Moscow has denied responsibility, claiming that the Ukrainians themselves were responsible. “We have collectively sent a clear message that Russia will be held accountable,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday. Earlier in the week she had called Russia’s presence on the Human Rights Council “a farce”. The latest move heaping diplomatic pressure on Moscow follows two UN General Assembly votes supported by some 140 nations that condemned the war. The carnage in Ukraine has also led to calls to exclude Russia from the World Trade Organization and the Group of 20 economic assemblies, even as a host of countries have expelled Russian diplomats and supported a growing list of sanctions aimed at Moscow. Several of those who voted against Thursday’s resolution – including China, Venezuela, Iran and Syria – said they supported human rights broadly but opposed its “over-politicisation” and the lack of debate over the resolution. Reports and images from Bucha are disturbing but must be verified and based on facts to prevent “unfounded expectations”, said Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the UN, criticising the US without mentioning it by name. Ukraine: Zelensky tells UN ‘most terrible crimes since WW2” being committed “Some individual countries, while talking loudly about peace, are obsessed with creating bloc confrontations, including provoking tensions in the Asia-Pacific region,” Zhang added. “This self-conflicting and self-serving practice is very dangerous and worrying and should be resolutely rejected.” The Human Rights Council has become increasingly polarised in recent years, mirroring the growing divide globally between democracies and autocracies. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian states have sought to redefine human rights at the UN by, for example, placing greater focus on state-led benchmarks over universal individual rights, including freedom from poverty, crime and violence. In remarks after the vote, Moscow’s representative Gennady Kuzmin characterised the UN body as becoming “monopolised by one group of states who use it for their short-term aims”, without singling out any members. Calling votes for Russia’s ouster “open blackmail of sovereign states”, Kuzmin said that those voting against Moscow “for many years have directly been involved in blatant and massive violations of human rights or abetted those violations”. He did not cite any specific incidents. The General Assembly voted 140-5 with 38 abstentions on March 24 on a resolution blaming Russia for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and urging an immediate ceasefire. This followed a 141-5 vote with 35 abstentions on a March 2 resolution calling for an immediate Russian ceasefire, withdrawal of all its forces and protection for civilians. On Thursday, the G7 issued a statement condemning the “atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces in Bucha” and other towns, citing potential war crimes and vowing further financial and military support for Ukraine. In a further indication of Western outrage over Russia’s February 24 invasion, the US Senate passed legislation, by a 100-to-0 vote, to end normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. A companion bill will need to be passed by the House, which is expected, before it can be signed into law by President Joe Biden. Russia is the second country to be suspended from the Human Rights Council, after a similar move against Libya in 2011 following social upheaval in the wake of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi’s being deposed. The number of abstentions on Thursday was much higher than the two earlier resolutions decrying Russia’s actions. Analysts said this appeared to reflect growing concern in Africa that allied measures directed against Moscow mirror those that wealthier nations sometimes employ in their region. Another possible factor, they added, is an argument voiced by China and others that developing countries are paying the price for the raft of punitive sanctions directed against Russia. “Indiscriminate sanctions without a bottom line have brought serious impact on the post-Covid recovery,” Zhang said. “People around the world, especially those in developing countries, have to bear the soaring oil and food prices.” Thursday’s vote, however, was stronger than expected even a week ago, said Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group, when conventional wisdom held that Western countries would be able to marshal only 60 to 80 votes on another Ukraine resolution. “If it wasn’t for the massacre at Bucha, I think the US would be careful about doing this at all,” he said. An important and historic day. Countries from around the globe have voted to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. We have collectively sent a clear message that Russia will be held accountable. https://t.co/jvVbWzv7Ys — Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) April 7, 2022 China, which abstained on the two resolutions in March, even as it has tacitly supported Russia in other ways, felt it necessary to weigh in with unambiguous support for Russia this time. “Beijing must loathe the notion that the US could marshal a similar resolution against it for treatment of the Uygurs,” Gowan said. While the resolution will have little concrete impact for Russia – which does not have a veto in the human rights body as it does in the Security Council and has already faced a Human Rights Commission inquiry over Ukraine – it carries symbolic weight. But having successfully organised three major resolutions against Russia, allied nations are at growing risk of wearing out their UN welcome, Gowan said. “For a lot of the African and Asian group, there is a real sense that the Western powers can’t just keep coming to them asking for their votes to penalise Russia,” he said. “The US, Ukraine and Ukraine’s allies need to take a breath and address the food security crisis.” Additional reporting by Robert Delaney in Washington