Over 80 NGOs call for Russia to be excluded from UN rights council over Syria

A number of human rights and aid organizations have urged the United Nations to deprive Russia of its seat on the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC), AFP reported on Monday.

More than 80 international organizations have signed the appeal, with such groups as Human Rights Watch, CARE International and Refugees International among them, AFP says.

The appeal has been submitted ahead of elections to the UN’s human rights body that are scheduled for Friday. The UN General Assembly in New York will be selecting members to fill 14 seats, with Russia, Hungary and Croatia running for two seats representing the Eastern European group at the council.

Saudi Arabia, China, Iraq, Brazil, Cuba, Egypt and South Africa are among the other countries vying for seats in various regional groups. The US and UK are seeking election to the two seats representing the Western Europe and Others group. Elected nations will be represented in the 47-nation council for three years, starting from 2017.

Russia is currently in the UNHRC, but its membership expires this year.

Last week, Britain and its Western and Arab allies introduced a resolution to the UNHRC demanding a review into alleged human rights violations in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The council then voted to start an independent special inquiry into the situation in the war-ravaged city.

Russia has been assisting the Syrian Army in fighting Al-Nusra Front terrorists in eastern Aleppo, which has become the militants’ stronghold in Syria. However, the West has blamed Moscow and Damascus for most of the civilian casualties in the area.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called the resolution’s accusations “cynical” and “dishonourable.”

The fighting has divided the city of Aleppo into two parts, with its western districts currently under government control and eastern parts held by rebels and Al-Nusra Front fighters. Although the militants have constantly attacked western Aleppo, resulting in numerous civilian deaths, last week Russia and Syria initiated a humanitarian ceasefire, giving people a chance to flee the battle scene.

At least eight civilians were killed and 80 others were injured in an airstrike by Russian warplanes Monday in Syria’s western province of Idlib, according to a local civil defence source.

Hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed or injured in Russian and Syrian airstrikes since Sept. 19, when the Bashar al-Assad regime announced the end of a weeklong truce.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests — which erupted as part of the “Arab Spring” uprisings — with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to UN figures.