The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced on Tuesday its intention to suspend Russia as a member of the United Nations body, for its “unilateral actions” against Ukraine.
The decision to suspend Russia was taken this Tuesday by a majority of the members of the UNWTO executive council in Madrid, where its headquarters are located, at the request of Colombia, Guatemala, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine, a UNWTO spokesperson.
To become effective, it must be ratified by two thirds of the members in an extraordinary general assembly, which will be convened “in the next thirty days,” said the spokesman.
According to the UNWTO, this was the first time in the history of the organization, established in Madrid in 1976, that its executive council met to consider the suspension of a member.
“If you are a member, you must commit to our rules. And embrace our values. So when members go against our goals, there must be consequences,” UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili of Georgia was quoted as saying in a statement. adding that “war is never the solution”.
The invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, contravenes the Charter of the United Nations and the UNWTO’s “principal objective” of “promoting and developing tourism as a means of contributing to economic development, international understanding, peace, prosperity and the universal respect for human rights,” the statement recalled.
Spain has already announced that it will support the suspension of Russia in the general assembly if Moscow does not put an end to the “cruel and unjustified aggression” against Ukraine, said the Spanish Tourism Minister, Reyes Maroto, quoted in a statement from her office. “From the UNWTO we must also say ‘Enough of War’,” she asserted.
