Aleh Hulak: Report by UN Special Rapporteur is full and objective

Human rights defenders hope the mandate of the UN Human Rights Committee's Special Rapporteur on Belarus will be extended.

The report on the human rights situation in Belarus prepared by Miklós Haraszti and presented at the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is full and objective. Radio Racyja learnt it from head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak, who attended the session of the Committee.

What do you think about Miklós Haraszti's report? What is the most important in the document?

To begin with, I'd like to note it is a balanced and comprehensive report. It gives full information and an objective view on the human rights situation in Belarus. As far as I know, Mr Haraszti, really tried to use all means to obtain information. He was always open looking for opportunities to receive information from governmental bodies to make his report as objective as possible. It wasn't his fault that there was no dialogue with the authorities. It is our common problem. In my opinion, it is very important to regard the work of the special rapporteur, the fact of his appointment not as a sanction against the country, but as a tool that the international community, the United Nations, invented to help countries solve their problems. Of course, we can pretend we don't have problems. But it is not true. We do have problems. They are treated in a controversial way sometimes. The problem are politicised. That's why it would be important to use these independent mechanisms and instruments to separate the wheat from the chaff and work to solve the existing problems.

What does the report say about the old but still acute problems such as disappearance and killings of political opponents of the Belarusian authorities and journalists? There may be the impression that these problems take second and even third place.

These are the problems that really exist. We mustn't and cannot forget about them. Anyway, we have them in historical memory, in legal memory. We have to live with it. On the other hand, this is not the primary task today. This is one many tasks. It is clear that the report in some way is an instrument of the international cooperation and international influence. It is clear that the Special Rapporteur looks for the steps that the Belarusian authorities can make. Of course, these are not such serious issues as political disapparences. But this problem will not disappear. It will have to be solved.