The International expert group (IEG) of the Association RAZAM.CH prepared a detailed analysis of the report made on 04 December 2020 by the High Commissioner on Human Rights, Ms Michelle Bachelet about the situation in Belarus.

In addition to the main points of the report, which noted no improvement in the human rights situation in Belarus, the IEG provides detailed information on the course of interactive dialogue, which followed the UN high official reporting. Apart from Belarus, seven ministers of foreign affairs, fifty representatives of states, and nine non-governmental organisations took part in this debate.

Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN office in Geneva, Yury Ambrazevich, took the floor at the end of the dialogue. While a very long list of concerns were expressed by the High Commissioner and interactive dialogue participants, Belarus representative believes the situation of human rights in Belarus does not deserve special consideration in the United Nations. Mr Ambrazevich supported his view by saying that one month ago Belarus received positive comments on the progress made during the UN Universal Periodic Review, which is a unique collaborative process aimed at considering the human rights records of all UN Member States.

While indeed as earlier reported during the review the delegations have positively assessed the relative progress in the sphere of human rights in Belarus in 2016-2019 years, however they criticized a cruel and widespread use of violence towards participants of peaceful protests in August 2020 and the allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

Ms Bachelet finalized the meeting with a number of concluding remarks on how the situation in Belarus can be improved. The concluding remarks, among others point to violations in universities, criminalization of the work of human rights defenders, necessity to release all persons detained for expressing their opinions, arrests of children, vulnerability to discrimination of LGBTIQ persons. Finally, Ms Bachelet also underlined lack of cooperation of Belarus with the office of the High Commissioner and explained the necessity of accountability  for committed violations as critical factor for prevention of further violations.

The full text of the RAZAM.CH analysis is available on the link.