Free Republic

UNITED NATIONS, April 7 (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council over reports of "gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights" by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. The U.S.-led push garnered 93 votes in favor, while 24 countries voted no and 58 countries abstained. A two-thirds majority of voting members in the 193-member General Assembly in New York - abstentions do not count - was needed to suspend Russia from the 47-member Geneva-based Human Rights Council. Suspensions are rare. Libya was suspended in 2011 because of violence against...

White House - AP Cabinet & State U.S. Blasts Human Rights Panel Selection Tue Feb 8,12:36 PM ET White House - AP Cabinet & State By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated press Writer WASHINGTON - The State Department denounced on Tuesday the selection of Cuba and Zimbabwe for a panel that will decide on the agenda for a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission next month. "The United States believes that countries that routinely and systematically violate the rights of their citizens should not be selected to review the human rights performance of other countries," State Department press office Tom Casey...

Tue May 4,12:18 PM ET Ambassador Sichan Siv, the United States Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and a female aide, left, walk out of the group's meeting to protest a vote giving Sudan a third term on the UN's Human Rights Commission, the world body's human rights watchdog, Tuesday, May 4, 2004, at the UN in New York. Siv called the vote an absurdity. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)