A senior Russian official accused the United States of deploying unmatched efforts to ensure Russia remained out of the Human Rights Council. The empty seat for the representative of Russia is pictured during the Human Rights Council special session on the human rights situation in Ukraine, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 12, 2022. China and Cuba were also among the winners of Tuesday's vote, drawing objections from human rights defenders. "Crimes against humanity and genocide apparently (are) not disqualifying actions for UN's top human rights body," the Uyghur Human Rights Project, which advocates against what rights campaigners say are China's grave human rights abuses against the mainly Muslim ethnic minority, wrote on messaging platform X.Juan Pappier, deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, wrote on X in the run-up to the vote that Cuba was unfit to be a member of the Council. "Its record of systematic human rights violations speaks for itself," he wrote.

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Persons: doesn't, Louis Charbonneau, Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova, Denis Balibouse, Maria Zabolotskaya, Richard Gowan, Juan Pappier, Emma Farge, Gabrielle Tétrault, Farber, Deepa Babington Organizations: Russia, GENEVA, United Nations, General Assembly, Rights Council, UN, United, Human Rights Watch, Children's, Kremlin, Human Rights, Human, REUTERS, Representative, Crisis, Thomson Locations: Bulgaria, Albania, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, China, Moscow, Europe, Geneva, United Nations, U.S, Russian, United States, Switzerland, Russia's