More than two dozen governments are backing an initiative to expel Syria from UNESCO’s human-rights committee, a move that would mark the first time the United Nation’s culture and education agency has taken such targeted steps to remove a member, Bloomberg reported.

The U.S., the U.K., Japan, Italy, Chile, Kuwait and Qatar are among 26 countries supporting the initiative after Syria was elected in November to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization panel that judges human-rights complaints. Over half the countries signing on to the proposal are members of UNESCO’s 58-member executive board.

“We should not allow the Syrian regime to stand as a judge of other countries’ human-rights record while it systematically violates the human rights of its citizens, commits acts of sexual violence against women and children, and murders its own people,” David Killion, the U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, said in a statement. “The Syrian regime’s actions are an affront to the dignity and human rights of the Syrian people, and it is not fit to sit on this body.”

More than 5,000 people have been killed since last March in Syria’s crackdown on unrest, according to the UN. Navi Pillay, the UN’s top human-rights official, has called for a probe into President Bashar al-Assad’s government for crimes against humanity and said “gross violations” by Assad’s security forces should be referred to the International Criminal Court.