UN Human Rights Council slurred over Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

The Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) is disappointed by the fact that the final text of the proposal document on institution-building that was presented by the President of UN Human Rights Council and adopted after hot debates has no mentioning of Belarus.

The report of Mr Luis Alfonso de Alba (Mexico), President of the UN Human Rights Council, was a final document of the Council`s fifth session, which had also considered the report of Mr Adrian Severin, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus.

On June 12, at the Council`s session, after presentation of Adrian Severin`s report, Mr Dzmitry Markusheuski, BHC`s press secretary, announced a joint statement of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), which is pointing, in particular, at strengthening of repressions against the civil society and introduction of criminal prosecution for socially valuable activities on behalf of non-registered public associations in Belarus, and at serious restrictions of the freedom of assembly and freedom of expression in the country.

The IHF and the FIDH have emphasized that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Belarus was introduced in 2004 and renewed in 2005, however, the government of Belarus failed to cooperate with the Rapporteur. In 2006, the UN General Assembly expressed its deep concern of the grave situation of human rights in Belarus [Resolution 61/175] and formulated recommendations for the government of the country, which have been nevertheless openly ignored by Belarus` leadership. Belarus has also failed to comply with its reporting obligations with treaty monitoring bodies since the end of the 1990s.

In its Resolution, the General Assembly of the United Nations strongly demanded that Belarus fully cooperates with all the UN special human rights mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in the country, whose mandate was directed towards assistance to the government of Belarus in remedying the situation.

Human rights organizations have called on the UN Human Rights Council not to ignore the aggravated human rights situation in Belarus, not to use the country mandate as a bargaining chip in the Council’s institution building, and to urge the government of the country to respect the Resolution of the UN General Assembly [61/175] and to start cooperating with all the UN mechanisms for the sake of human rights protection. The IHF and the FIDH have emphasized that the Special Rapporteur provides a voice to the victims and enables civil society to keep alive the hope that an improvement of the human rights record in Belarus is possible.

The debate on the report of the President of UN Human Rights Council on institution building of the Council dated June 17 had been planned on June 18 – the day when the Council’s mandate granted by the UN General Assembly expired, however, the text of the final decision was accessible not to all the interested persons and organizations, therefore, the debate went on later.

The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus was not mentioned by the Mexican envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba in the list of extended country mandates, while the UN Human Rights Council gave no estimate of the human rights situation in Belarus, which had been studied by Special Rapporteur Adrian Severin.

The BHC expresses its hope that the government of Belarus will embark on the course of constructive cooperation with the UN thematic procedures on human rights.
The BHC will continue its cooperation with international organizations and UN thematic procedures on protection of human rights and is ready to assist the government in fulfilling its obligations in the field of human rights, as through violation of these rights the government is attracting political and economic sanctions on its country.