Human rights watchdogs met with UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus

Representatives of Belarusian human rights organisations met with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus Miklós Haraszti.

The event was held in Vilnius, as the Belarusian authorities do not recognize the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur and do not grant him an invitation to visit Belarus, Viasna human rights centre informs.

This year Belarus is to go through another procedure in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR1). The second stage of the UPR is planned for May 2005. Belarus must present the results of fulfillment of the previous recommendations on the situation with human rights, adopted by it during the first stage. In the run-up to this review Belarusian human rights organisations have sent an alternative report to the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights.

As said by the deputy chairman of Viasna human rights centre Valyantsin Stefanovich, during the consultations the situation with public and political rights in the country, other problems concerning respect to human rights in Belarus. Human rights activists have expressed their concern over absence of real progress in key problem spheres with human rights in the country over the last 5 years.

It should be noted that voting in the UN Council for Human Rights on extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus is planned for June.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, applied to Belarus at the moment, was established in 2006 and operates under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council. As part of the UPR, the human rights situation of all UN Member States is examined approximately every four and a half years, emphasising the universal nature of human rights. It is a process reviewing the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States. The UPR is created to improve the human rights situation locally, contribute to fulfillment of commitments of a state in the human rights sphere, and consolidation of the potential of the state in human rights defence. The situation with human rights in every country is reviewed every five years.