UN Special Rapporteur: Situation in Belarus hasn't changed

The UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus presented his report on the situation in the country.

He noted he wasn't able to visit Belarus and expressed a hope that the Belarusian authorities would finally agree to cooperate with the special rapporteur and invite him to visit the country, BelaPAN reports.

Miklos Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus, presented his report on the situation in the country at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly at a meeting of the Third Committee (Item 69 (c) of the provisional agenda Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives) on October 28.

Haraszti noted he had been monitoring the situation in the country since 2012 when he received his mandate from the Human Rights Council. “The overall situation of human rights in Belarus has not shown improvement,” the Special Rapporteur said.

Amendments to the law on public associations and political parties that came into forces in February 2014 and the release of human rights defender Ales Bialiatski were marked as positive steps in the report.

According to Haraszti, three main stumbling blocks that disable civil society activism are the restrictive, permission-based rules on registration; the ensuing widespread refusal of registration; and the criminalization of unregistered civil activities and funding.

Haraszti says threats and warnings are used routinely to intimidate human rights defenders in order to prevent them from carrying out their activities.