The United Nations Human Rights Council’s impartiality in vetting coercive measures — sanctions, for example — has come under scrutiny after an investigator’s positive report on Russia was linked to a $50,000 “contribution” from Russia to the report’s author.

Special rapporteur Idriss Jazairy denied that his report “was influenced by funds allocated to my mandate,” The Associated Press reported. Mr. Jazairy earlier this year investigated the effect of sanctions by the U.S. and European Union on the people of Russia.

His report “makes the astounding claim” that Russia is the victim after its illegal 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and its support of the insurgency in parts of eastern Ukraine, according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of the group U.N. Watch.

What’s revealed is the far larger issue of contributions from individual nations to the Human Rights Council — money that’s separate from what’s formally allocated by the U.N. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to special rapporteurs (U.N. rules preclude the use of such donations for reports or country visits), according to the AP. Last year about 35 percent of the human-rights panel’s total budget came non-budgeted support. These voluntary contributions “are necessary for the proper functioning of the special procedures system,” Mr. Jazairy said.

What these contributions lead to, however, is more skepticism over how the U.N. Human Rights Council and its investigators go about their business.

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