Anastasia Pechenyuk11:40, 04/08/23

Of the 14 commissions, councils and expert groups led by ECOSOC, Russia was elected to two.

Russia, which is chairing the UN Security Council this month , failed this week to secure seats in three bodies within the organization.

According to the Associated Press, during the vote in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Russia was defeated by Romania and did not get a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women. 

Also, the aggressor country lost to Estonia and did not become a member of the Executive Board of the UN children’s agency UNICEF. In addition, Russia was defeated by Armenia and the Czech Republic during a secret ballot for membership in the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. 

In total, out of 14 commissions, councils and expert groups led by ECOSOR, Russia was elected to two – the Commission for Social Development and the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting and Reporting Standards (by acclamation).

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield is convinced that the 54 member countries of ECOCOR gave a “clear signal” to Russia that “no country should hold positions in critical UN bodies when it flagrantly violates the UN Charter.”

Russia in the UN – what you need to know 

Ukraine insists on the need to exclude Russia from the UN and the Security Council of the organization, arguing that the aggressor country illegally took the place of the USSR. Despite the constant calls of the Ukrainian authorities to exclude Russia from the permanent members of the Security Council , the aggressor not only remains in this status, but also chairs the Republic of Belarus this month.

The Russian Federation has already used its chairmanship in the Security Council to spread fake news about the murder of propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky, to justify the kidnapping of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories.

Against the backdrop of a full-scale war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, the United States advocated reform of the UN Security Council . Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also called for a reform of the body.

(C)UNIAN 2023