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Lavrov: UNHRC Discredited Itself Long before Developments around Ukraine

Lavrov: UNHRC Discredited Itself Long before Developments around Ukraine
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By Staff, Agencies

The United Nations Human Rights Council [UNHRC] discredited itself long before the current situation around Ukraine began, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"We withdrew from the Human Rights Council on our own. They wanted to expel us from it, to suspend our membership. We decided to do it ourselves. The Council discredited itself long before the current situation around Ukraine began," TASS cited him as saying.

On April 7, the United Nation General Assembly gathered for a special session on Ukraine and passed a resolution on the suspension of Russia’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council. On the same day, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gennady Kuzmin said that Russia had decided to terminate its membership in the UNCHR, adding that the Council "has been actually monopolized by one group of countries who are using it in their selfish interests."

The 47 member countries of the UN Human Rights Council are elected by the UN General Assembly for a three-year term. Russia was a UNHRC member in 2006-2012 and in 2014-2016 and was elected for its third term, which began on January 1, 2021.

Lavrov said that Western politicians who say Russia should suffer defeat are bad at history.

"Once again, we are now living through such a period in our history. They say that Russia must "be defeated," they must "defeat Russia," make Russia "lose on the battlefield," he said at an event entitled One Hundred Questions for a Leader. "I am sure that you know history better than the Western politicians who are casting these ‘spells.’"

"They must have done poorly in school," Lavrov went on to say. "They have drawn the wrong conclusions from their understanding of the past and of Russia."

Russia will rely only on itself and on those countries which have proved their reliability and are not "dancing to anyone’s tune," Lavrov said.

"We will rely only on ourselves and those countries, which have proved their reliability and which are never dancing to anyone’s tune. If Western countries change their mind and suggest formats of cooperation, we will think," he said, adding that if the West wants to offer anything to Russia in terms of the resumption of relations, Moscow will think twice whether it needs that.

"When they are through with their frenzy and see that Russia is still here and is growing stronger year after year. If they want to offer anything in terms of the resumption of relations, we will think twice whether we need it or not very much," the Russian foreign minister said at an event entitled One Hundred Questions for a Leader.

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