Title: Finding that the Russian Federation's presence in the United Nations Security Council violates the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution urges the President to take actions to limit, suspend, or terminate Russia's participation in the organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations (U.N.), including the U.N. Security Council.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1517 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1517

 Finding that the Russian Federation's presence in the United Nations 
  Security Council violates the purposes and principles of the United 
                                Nations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 13, 2022

Mr. Cohen (for himself and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Finding that the Russian Federation's presence in the United Nations 
  Security Council violates the purposes and principles of the United 
                                Nations.

Whereas the Russian Federation has carried out an illegal, premeditated, 
        unprovoked, and brutal war against Ukraine;
Whereas the Russian Federation in its war against Ukraine has perpetrated 
        heinous atrocities against unarmed civilians, including pillage, 
        torture, rape, summary executions, the destruction of entire cities, and 
        other crimes, including crimes targeting women and children;
Whereas the Russian Federation in its war against Ukraine has repeatedly 
        threatened to use nuclear weapons;
Whereas the Russian Federation in its war against Ukraine has forcibly occupied 
        and taken deliberate actions that threaten to destroy civilian nuclear 
        power stations, facilities the destruction of which would place millions 
        of people in Ukraine and in other nations at risk;
Whereas the Russian Federation has carried out illegal so-called referendums in 
        Ukraine and adopted legislation purporting to annex regions, 
        notwithstanding that the overwhelming majority of nations unambiguously 
        recognize, and the Russian Federation itself had unambiguously 
        recognized, that those regions are sovereign territory of Ukraine;
Whereas the Russian Federation has indicated its intention to destroy Ukraine as 
        a nation and has used rhetoric calling for further illegal purported 
        annexations and violence against other nations;
Whereas the Russian Federation, under the Memorandum on Security Assurances in 
        Connection with Ukraine's Accession to the Treaty on the Non-
        Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons signed at Budapest on December 7, 1994 
        (hereinafter ``Budapest Memorandum''), reaffirmed in accordance with the 
        principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and 
        Cooperation in Europe its commitments ``to respect the independence and 
        sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine'' and ``to refrain from 
        the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or 
        political independence of Ukraine'';
Whereas Ukraine, under the Budapest Memorandum in exchange for the Russian 
        Federation's commitments, voluntarily relinquished the nuclear weapons 
        in its territory and acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of 
        Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear-weapon State;
Whereas the Russian Federation's flagrant violations of its commitments under 
        the Budapest Memorandum set a dangerous example, injurious to future 
        efforts to promote nuclear arms control and nonproliferation;
Whereas the Russian Federation, notwithstanding the commitment it made under the 
        Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from 
        Ukrainian Ports adopted upon the proposal of the United Nations 
        Secretary-General on July 22, 2022, to enable the resumption of exports 
        of Ukrainian grain, other foodstuffs, and fertilizer through a safe 
        maritime humanitarian corridor, repeatedly threatens to obstruct that 
        corridor and the security of the world's food supply;
Whereas the purposes of the United Nations (hereinafter ``UN'') include--

    (1) to maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to 
take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of 
threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression, and to 
bring about by peaceful means adjustment or settlement of international 
disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

    (2) to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for 
the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to 
take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; and

    (3) to achieve international cooperation in promoting and encouraging 
respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without 
distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion;

Whereas the principles of the UN include--

    (1) respect for the sovereign equality of all UN Members;

    (2) good faith in the fulfilment of all obligations under the Charter 
of the United Nations (hereinafter ``UN Charter'');

    (3) peaceful settlement of international disputes; and

    (4) refraining from the threat or use of force against the territorial 
integrity or political independence of any State;

Whereas Article 4 of the UN Charter opens the UN only to countries that are 
        peace-loving;
Whereas Article 6 of the UN Charter allows the UN upon two-thirds vote of the UN 
        General Assembly and recommendation of the UN Security Council to expel 
        a member that has persistently violated the principles of the UN 
        Charter;
Whereas international aggression is a fundamental violation of the purposes and 
        principles of the UN Charter;
Whereas the United Nations General Assembly (hereinafter the ``UN General 
        Assembly'') meeting in Emergency Special Session has acknowledged by 
        overwhelming majorities that--

    (1) the Russian Federation's conduct constitutes aggression against 
Ukraine;

    (2) the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine is the cause of 
a dire humanitarian crisis on a scale not seen in Europe in decades; and

    (3) the illegal so-called referendums organized by the Russian 
Federation in regions of Ukraine have no validity under international law 
and form no basis for any alteration of the status of any region of 
Ukraine;

Whereas the Russian Federation has ignored its responsibility to observe and 
        implement determinations by UN organs and officials, including 
        determinations by--

    (1) the UN General Assembly, which has demanded repeatedly that the 
Russian Federation immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw 
all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within Ukraine's 
internationally recognized borders;

    (2) the UN Human Rights Council, which has called upon the Russian 
Federation to immediately end its human rights violations and abuses and 
violations of international humanitarian law committed in the course of its 
aggression against Ukraine;

    (3) the International Court of Justice, which has ordered that the 
Russian Federation shall immediately suspend all military operations 
against Ukraine, including the military operations that the Russian 
Federation commenced on February 24, 2022, and refrain from actions 
violating the human rights of the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian communities 
in the Crimean region of Ukraine, which region the Russian Federation has 
illegally occupied by force since 2014 and illegally purports to have 
annexed;

    (4) the President of the UN Security Council, who has condemned the 
continuous violations of the earlier cease-fire regime under the Minsk 
Agreements and has called on the Russian Federation to facilitate the work 
of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine; and

    (5) the UN Secretary-General, who has called on the Russian Federation 
to stop its military offensive against Ukraine and who has declared that 
Russia's illegal purported annexation of territory in Ukraine ``flouts the 
Purposes and Principles of the United Nations'';

Whereas the Russian Federation's repeated threats to use nuclear weapons and 
        rhetoric about raising its nuclear alert levels are inconsistent with 
        and in flagrant disregard of the Joint Statement on Preventing Nuclear 
        War and Avoiding Arms Races that the Russian Federation, along with the 
        other four permanent members of the UN Security Council, adopted in 
        2022;
Whereas the Russian Federation has abused the power of the veto that it holds in 
        the UN Security Council under Article 23, paragraph 1, of the UN 
        Charter, including by exercising the veto in order to prevent the 
        Security Council from taking necessary actions and reaching appropriate 
        determinations in regard to the Russian Federation's aggression against 
        Ukraine;
Whereas the Russian Federation further has abused the procedures of the Security 
        Council, including--

    (1) by attempting to prevent senior representatives of Ukraine from 
addressing the Security Council;

    (2) by exploiting the Security Council as a venue in which to make 
patently false accusations, including false accusations that Ukraine has 
committed genocide against Russians, that the President of Ukraine is a 
Nazi, and that Ukraine is preparing a nuclear attack;

    (3) by advancing a draft resolution that would attempt to portray 
Ukraine as responsible for the humanitarian disaster resulting from the 
Russian Federation's aggression, a draft resolution having no purpose 
except to obstruct the orderly conduct of Security Council proceedings and 
distract attention from the Russian Federation's aggression;

    (4) by lodging repeated complaints in the Security Council under 
Article VI of the Biological Weapons Convention (hereinafter the ``BWC'') 
falsely accusing Ukraine of hosting biological weapons programs involving 
birds, bats, and mosquitoes and providing no evidence to support its 
complaints, while ignoring statements by the UN Office for Disarmament 
Affairs that that Office is unaware of any biological weapons programs in 
Ukraine, ignoring that consultations with 89 countries convened under the 
BWC did not find any BWC violations in Ukraine, and ignoring the damage 
that the Russian Federation's baseless allegations have done to 
multilateral cooperation under the BWC;

    (5) by demanding that the Security Council convene in order to 
entertain the Russian Federation's patently false and abusive claim that 
the atrocities that the Russian Federation committed at Bucha in Ukraine, 
which numbered among the worst atrocities up to that time in the Russian 
Federation's aggression against Ukraine, were the result of a 
``provocation'' by ``Ukrainian radicals'';

    (6) by issuing false and groundless procedural complaints in the 
Security Council, including false accusations against the President of the 
Security Council that that Security Council officer had prevented the 
Russian Federation from making the claim that atrocities at Bucha were 
``provoked'', despite the clear and unambiguous indication in the verbatim 
record that the President in fact had given the Russian Federation more 
than one opportunity in which to make that claim notwithstanding its 
falsity and the Russian Federation's abusive purpose in making it; and

    (7) by demanding further Security Council meetings in order to continue 
to abuse that UN organ by issuing from a permanent member's seat blatantly 
false accusations, including accusations that it is Ukraine, not the 
Russian Federation, that is responsible for the Russian Federation's 
atrocities and aggression;

Whereas nations in international organizations, in light of the Russian 
        Federation's egregious violations of international law, have taken steps 
        to protect the integrity of those organizations and their procedures and 
        to hold the Russian Federation to account, including in--

    (1) the UN General Assembly, which by Resolution ES-11/3 of April 7, 
2022, suspended the Russian Federation from the UN Human Rights Council;

    (2) the International Civil Aviation Organization, which on October 4, 
2022, voted not to reelect the Russian Federation to that organization's 
Governing Council;

    (3) the Danube Commission, which by Decision of its 12th Extraordinary 
Session, on March 17, 2022, declined to accept the credentials of the 
Russian Federation and excluded those representatives from participation in 
all meetings of the Danube Commission and its working bodies until 
cessation of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine;

    (4) the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, which 
by Resolution CP/RES.1195 (2374/22) of April 21, 2022, suspended the 
Russian Federation's status as a Permanent Observer of the Organization of 
American States;

    (5) the UN World Tourism Organization, which by Resolution of April 27, 
2022, suspended the Russian Federation's membership in that organization;

    (6) the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which by 
Decision of February 25, 2022, suspended the Russian Federation from its 
rights of representation in the Council of Europe and by Decision of March 
16, 2022, declared that the Russian Federation has ceased to be a member of 
the Council of Europe; and

    (7) the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which by 
Resolution 2463 (2022) of October 13, 2022, resolved that the Russian 
Federation's threats to use nuclear weapons and threats to use civilian 
nuclear power facilities as weapons are incompatible with the 
responsibilities of a country holding a permanent seat on the UN Security 
Council;

Whereas the Security Council is the principal organ of the UN having primary 
        responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security; 
        and
Whereas the Russian Federation, notwithstanding its war of aggression against 
        Ukraine, the heinous atrocities it has committed, its nuclear threats, 
        its threats to the world food supply, the further threats to 
        international peace and security it makes through baseless territorial 
        claims against Ukraine and other countries, its abuse of the rights and 
        privileges of permanent membership in the UN Security Council, and the 
        flagrant violations of the purposes and principles of the UN that these 
        actions of the Russian Federation entail, has continued to sit in the 
        seat of a permanent member of the Security Council under Article 23, 
        paragraph 1, of the UN Charter and to exercise other rights and 
        privileges in UN organs and specialized agencies: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) finds that the Russian Federation has repeatedly, 
        deliberately, and flagrantly violated the purposes and 
        principles of the United Nations;
            (2) finds that the continued exercise of rights and 
        privileges by the Russian Federation in the Security Council of 
        the United Nations under United Nations Charter Article 23, 
        paragraph 1, further violates the purposes and principles of 
        the United Nations and is contrary to the interests of the 
        United States in the maintenance of international peace and 
        security;
            (3) finds that the participation and membership of the 
        Russian Federation in other organs and specialized agencies of 
        the United Nations violates the purposes and principles of the 
        United Nations and is contrary to the interests of the United 
        States;
            (4) urges the President of the United States--
                    (A) to direct the Department of State and other 
                relevant Federal departments and agencies to pursue all 
                appropriate steps with Allies, partners, and other 
                countries to limit, suspend, or terminate rights and 
                privileges that the Russian Federation exercises in the 
                Security Council of the United Nations under United 
                Nations Charter Article 23, paragraph 1; and
                    (B) to direct the Department of State and other 
                relevant Federal departments and agencies to pursue all 
                appropriate steps with Allies, partners, and other 
                countries to limit, suspend, or terminate the 
                participation or membership of the Russian Federation 
                in other organs and specialized agencies of the United 
                Nations; and
            (5) supports the deployment by the United States of all 
        necessary diplomatic and other resources to ensure the success 
        of the steps that it herein urges the President to direct.
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