UN Voted for Special Rapporteur on Belarus

The UN Human Rights Council on to adopt a resolution providing for the establishment of a special rapporteur on Belarus on July 5, BelaPAN reports.

The resolution adopted within the framework of the Council’s 20th session in Geneva urges the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, conduct a complete and transparent investigation into all reports of torture and inhuman treatment of political prisoners, immediately stop the practice of administrative detentions of opposition and civil society activists, journalists and human rights defenders, and not to prevent them from traveling abroad.

The resolution calls on Minsk to carry out all recommendations contained in a report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on the human rights situation in Belarus, which was delivered earlier during the session, and suggests that the Belarusian authorities should fully cooperate with the special rapporteur, provide him with all necessary information and allow him to visit the country.

The five nations that voted against the resolution were Russia, China, Cuba, Ecuador and India.

However, Belarusian party did not agree with such a decision.

The Belarusian foreign ministry on Friday condemned the European Parliament's critical resolution on the situation in Belarus as “nothing but a blatant political order by those forces in Europe that are not interested in the establishment of neighborly relations with Belarus”.

In the resolution adopted on July 5, the European Parliament denounced human rights abuses and the persecution of opposition activists in Belarus.

“Churning out such one-sided and biased resolutions has long become a routine business for the European Parliament,”

The ministry suggested that most MEPs did not even read resolutions on Belarus.

“Under these circumstances, a certain group of MEPs, guided by their internal goals, simply push through a distorted perception of the situation in Belarus,”

The resolution's call for the possible expansion of sanctions against Belarus “only complicates the mutual search for ways of normalizing Belarusian-European dialogue.”

“Despite such non-constructive approaches by the European Parliament, Belarus confirms its interest in the development of mutually beneficial partner relations with the European Union and its member states based on the principles of equal rights and mutual respect that are universally recognized in interstate relations,”

Belarus is also concerned about the position of the special rapporteur on Belarus introduced by the resolution on July 5.

The representative of Belarus in the UN, Geneva, Mikhail Khvastou reminded that such position had previously existed but was abolished in 2007.

“Such a decision was completely logical. The special rapporteur showed its complete unreasonableness and was aimed at dissemination of confrontation inside our country and a violent change of authority and disrespectfully characterized Belarusian people as those without national identity,”

He also noted that Belarus does not recognize the mandate of the special rapporteur and is not going to cooperate with the special rapporteur. However, Belarus is aware of importance of tools for international human rights monitoring in the world. Yet, Belarus will cooperate with those who are not biased and indiscriminate, said Mr. Khvastou.

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