Short answers, pulled from the story.
The United Nations Human Rights Council was established on the 15th of March 2006, when the United Nations General Assembly voted to create it as a replacement for the Commission on Human Rights. Its headquarters are at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has 47 member states, elected by the General Assembly in staggered three-year terms. The seats are allocated regionally: 13 for the African Group, 13 for the Asia-Pacific Group, 8 for Latin American and Caribbean states, 7 for the Western European and Others Group, and 6 for Eastern European states. No member may serve more than two consecutive terms.
Russia was suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council on the 7th of April 2022 following evidence of gross and systematic human rights violations during its invasion of Ukraine, including the Bucha massacre. The General Assembly passed the suspension by 93 votes in favor, 24 against, and 58 abstentions. Russia was the first permanent member of the UN Security Council ever to be suspended from any United Nations body.
The Universal Periodic Review is a mechanism run by the United Nations Human Rights Council that examines the human rights record of every UN member state. Each country's situation is debated for three and a half hours. The first review cycle ran from 2008 to 2011, and the second from 2012 to 2016, with subsequent cycles focusing on implementation of earlier recommendations.
The United States has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council primarily over concerns about anti-Israel bias and the inclusion of governments accused of human rights abuses. Under President Trump, the U.S. first withdrew on the 19th of June 2018, with Ambassador Nikki Haley calling the body a "cesspool of political bias." The Biden administration rejoined on the 8th of February 2021, and President Trump withdrew again on the 4th of February 2025.
Two countries have been suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Libya was suspended on the 1st of March 2011 following Muammar Gaddafi's violent crackdown on protesters and was reinstated on the 18th of November 2011. Russia was suspended on the 7th of April 2022 over violations committed during its invasion of Ukraine, making it the only permanent UN Security Council member ever removed from a UN body.