Russia Fails to Secure Votes for Un Bodies: The Impact of Ukraine

Russia lost in three contests for United Nations related bodies this week. This shows that people still oppose their invasion of Ukraine which happened more than a year ago.

The U.N. Economic and Social Council voted after the U.N. General Assembly agreed to six resolutions that were not legally binding against Russia. On February 23, a year since Russia invaded, these resolutions called for them to end their hostilities, leave the area, and were approved by 141 votes for yes, 7 no votes and 32 abstentions.

Russia did not win the votes to join three different important groups in the UN! Romania, Estonia, Armenia, and the Czech Republic all won instead. They beat Russia to get a seat on the Commission on Status of Women, be a member of UNICEF’s executive board, and join the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

The U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the votes from ECOSOC showed that no country should have positions in important UN groups when they go against the rules of the UN Charter.

Russia was chosen to be a part of 14 different committees, boards and experts groups supervised by ECOSOC. The US and UK were not happy with this decision as they said that Russia invaded Ukraine which goes against international laws. Despite the protest from US and UK, Russia was chosen for Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting.