Some Good News amid the Darkness, Daily Brief, 11 October, 2023

I want to start off with good news today, because I think we all need it right now.

Russia’s government has failed in its effort to join the UN Human Rights Council.

Yes, I know, I know… It may not seem overly comforting that the best I can come up with is meeting the barest minimum of standards. But bear with me here. I know it may not seem like much, but it is good news all the same.

At the 193-nation UN General Assembly yesterday, Russia asked to return to the human rights council after the General Assembly voted to suspend its membership last year following its full-scale, atrocity-ridden invasion of Ukraine.

The governments of the world said no.

No to the Kremlin’s systematic atrocities against Ukrainian civilians. No to Russia’s endless war crimes and crimes against humanity. No to Russian torture. No to Russia’s summary executions and enforced disappearances of civilians. And no to Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

The international community has sent a crystal-clear signal, in an overwhelming vote, that you can’t just invade a country and slaughter its people and pretend everything is normal.

Yes. That is good news.

The fact that it’s exceptional – particularly as China, responsible for crimes against humanity, was voted on to the Human Rights Council – does not extinguish this lone flame of goodness.

The Kremlin has not convinced the world to back mass murder as a tool of geopolitics.

It’s an important signal. Cherish it.