India abstains in UN Human Rights council vote on Ukraine -Russia Conflict

Tags: International News

India again abstained on the United Nation Human Rights Council resolution on 4 March 2022, calling for an investigation of alleged human rights violation and international humanitarian law by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine .

• So far India has abstained  from three votes at the UN Security Council, two at the UN General Assembly in New York, two at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and one at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on resolution which has condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine . 

• Only Eritrea and Russia voted against the resolution while 13 countries including India abstained from the vote. . 

• The resolution was passed by two-third majority and it asked the Un Human Rights Council President to appoint a three member panel .

• Russia has rejected all the allegations of human rights violation or targeting civilians during the conflict .

 United Nations Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council was set up by the United Nation General Assembly in 2006. It replaced the United Nations Commission  Human Rights which was set up in 1946.

Main Functions 

As it names suggest it was set up to ;

• Strengthen  the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe;

•  for addressing situations of human rights violations and makes recommendations on them.;

• It discusses human rights issues and situations around the world .

Members 

It has 47 members who are elected for three years by the United National General Assembly . The membership  is distributed among regions. 13 members come from Asia and 13 from Africa , 6 come from East Europe, 7 from Western Europeand other groups  and 8 from South America and Caribbean countries .

Headquarters : Geneva, Switzerland 

President : Federico Villegras  of Argentina .