Ales Bialatski: Abolishing Position of Special Rapporteur on Belarus Is Result of Political Agreement

The United Nations Human Rights Council excluded Belarus and Cuba from the “black list” of the countries which need permanent monitoring. The positions of special rapporteurs on human rights in Belarus and Cuba have been cancelled, reports RFE/RL.

Vice president of the International Federation of Human Rights, human rights defender Ales Bialiatski criticizes the decision: “Canceling the position of a special rapporteur is a result of political agreement between the Belarusian government and the countries which do not respect the international standards of human rights. It is enough to analyze the structure of the UN Human Rights Council in order to understand that. Such countries as North Korea, Iran, China, Cuba, Russia, and the countries with military conflicts on their territory are members of the Council.

Unfortunately, the priority was given to the political pretext of abolishing this position. Moreover, it all happened on the background of canceling the same position for Cuba, where the human rights situation is even more terrifying.

The position of the special rapporteur on human rights was an opportunity to raise the issue of human rights violations in Belarus on the international level.

The special rapporteur on Belarus was quite active. He regularly prepared his reports on the situation. He made his last report on June 12^th in Geneva, where he definitely stated that the human rights situation in Belarus deteriorated in 2006.

No doubt, we are losing a channel of delivering objective information and of unbiased evaluation of the situation which is happening in Belarus”.