GENEVA, October 7. /TASS/. Western countries are using the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to further their political goals in an attempt to punish Russia for its independent policy, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov said at the 51st HRC session in Geneva, appraising the draft of an anti-Russian resolution submitted by Western countries as "built on the already familiar insinuations by the US and its obedient satellites."
According to the diplomat, this resolution "is yet another example of how Western states are using the council to attain their political goals," with the true goal of their initiative being the "creation of yet another lever of pressure on Russia." "[This is about yet another attempt] to punish our country for conducting independent foreign and domestic policy as well as to secure the Russian issue on the HRC’s agenda for the long-term in order to flood us with false accusations," he stated.
The draft resolution, introduced by EU countries, provides for designating a special spokesperson at the HRC on the issue of human rights in Russia for one year. This position involves gathering, studying and evaluating information on the matter and delivering a report at the 54th HRC session and the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.
As Gatilov stressed in his address, this project is built "on the already familiar insinuations by the US and its obedient satellites" with regards to Russia. Its authors "did not conceal that they were absolutely not interested either in dialogue with Russia or in its opinion." "They openly admitted that they needed the new mandate to have a channel for receiving information from those Russian civil society institutions that, as is known, nowadays rely on Western funding," the envoy asserted.
According to him, "the destructive potential of these actions on the part of the European Union and its allies [is obvious] for the entire human rights track at the UN." This is "yet another step in the West’s strategy on turning the HRC and the UN human rights system in general into an instrument of serving the interests of one group of countries." Gatilov urged all HRC member states "not to support this anti-Russian initiative."
The vote on the draft resolution is scheduled for October 7.