UN Special Rapporteur cannot get access to Belarus
UN Special Rapporteur Miklós Haraszti accuses the Belarusian authorities of human rights violations and lack of cooperation with the international organisation.
“The human rights violations that are consistently reported in Belarus remain – as before – of systematic and systemic nature,” Interfax quotes Miklós Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Belarus, as saying at a session of the Human Rights Council on Wednesday.
“I had already noted that administrative arrests and short-term detentions continue to be used systematically and arbitrarily in reprisal against citizens who seek to exercise independently and freely their rights,” he said.
According to Haraszti, Belarusian students are reported to have been forced to work on the construction of the Chyzhouka Arena in Minsk, a venue for the 2014 Ice Hockey World Championship.
“The government's lack of cooperation with the Human Rights Council's mechanism further aggravates this situation,” he noted.
The UN Special Rapporteur found it regrettable that the Belarusian authorities did not allowed him to visit the country. “I have continued to seek the government's cooperation in order to engage in a constructive dialogue,” he added.
