LIVE – Ukraine asks NATO countries for more weapons, meeting in Brussels on Thursday

HIM-HER-IT

The UN General Assembly will vote this Thursday at 10 a.m. local time (4 p.m. in France) whether or not to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, due to the invasion of Ukraine. For Russia to be suspended, a majority of 2/3 of the countries that will vote for and against during the ballot, to which the 193 members of the General Assembly are invited, is needed. Abstentions are not taken into account.

“Russia should not occupy a position of authority in this body, nor should we allow Russia to use its role in the Council as a propaganda tool to suggest that it has a legitimate concern regarding human rights,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday.

The United States is confident of having a two-thirds majority in the Assembly. Other member countries, European but also African, are less sure, several diplomats told AFP. The UN secretariat, for its part, expressed reluctance over such a suspension, fearing that it would open the door to any request for the suspension of a country in any UN body by any country.

–