The United Nations General Assembly will vote Thursday on whether to suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

According to General Assembly spokesperson Paulina Kubiak, the emergency special session on Ukraine will resume on Thursday at 10 A.M. EDT, when the resolution "to suspend the rights of membership in the Human Rights Council of the Russian Federation" will be put to a vote.

The Human Rights Council is based in Geneva, and its members are elected for three-year terms by the 193-nation General Assembly. According to the March 2006 HRC resolution, the assembly may suspend a country's membership rights if it "commits gross and systematic violations of human rights."

The resolution must be approved by a two-thirds majority of assembly members who vote "yes" or "no." Abstentions are not counted.

The US representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Wednesday that expelling Russia from the United Nations Security Council will be impossible, although Western countries will do the maximum to isolate Moscow.

Washington and its allies, according to Thomas-Greenfield, have been working to exclude Russia from the UN human rights council. 

On its account, Russia has stated that the attempt to expel it from the Human Rights Council is political and is being supported by a number of countries in order to maintain their dominant position and control over the world, and to continue "the politics of neo-colonialism of human rights" in international relations.

Russia stated that it prioritizes human rights promotion and defense, including multilaterally in the Human Rights Council.