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According to diplomats, the UN Security Council will convene another meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine next week, despite Russia’s veto authority over the powerful body.
According to a diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the next meeting suggested by France and Mexico will “focus on refugees, third-country nationals, and human trafficking.”
The US and Albania proposed the meeting on Monday, with Albania’s UN ambassador, Ferit Hoxha, announcing that he and his UN colleagues would continue to condemn the February 24 invasion of Ukraine even if Moscow “has taken this Council hostage, preventing it (from) deliver(ing) security in Ukraine” with its veto.
The Security Council has met 15 times since the beginning of the war, and the United Nations General Assembly has voted three times on the war, first condemning the invasion on March 2, then calling for civilian protection on March 24, and finally suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council on April 7.
The members of the Security Council who are leading the initiative on Ukraine have chosen to hold regular sessions on the war and to return to the issue of Ukraine at every opportunity, according to several diplomats, rather than holding emergency meetings, even after massacres like the killings on Friday in Kramatorsk, which left 50 people dead.
Some of their colleagues, however, believe that further isolating Russia would be counterproductive, or that imposing too many sanctions would kill any hope for multilateralism, and suggest that the Council should focus on diplomacy rather than public relations, according to the diplomats.
The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Norway, and Albania were among the six Security Council members who voted in favour of Russia’s removal from the Human Rights Council in the General Assembly.
Russia, China, and Gabon voted no, while India, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
