Human rights activist demands that Belarusian MFA publish decisions of UN Human Rights Committee

December 1 Leanid Sudalenka, executive director of the Movement for the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "Covenant" (which is in the process of creation) sent a statement to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry with a request to publish decisions of the UN Committee on Human Rights regarding Belarus at the official website of the Ministry.

The human rights activist draws attention of the ministry to the fact that monitoring of implementation of decisions of international human rights bodies regulated by the law on international treaties by the state is a duty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Following the publication of the results of the 112th session of the UN Human Rights Committee, held in October 2014, we became aware of the 73-decisions (opinions), adopted by the Committee on individual complaints of Belarusian citizens, most of which contain recommendations, including the publication of the decisions adopted by the Committee.

"Taking into account the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is defined at the legislative level as a state body that controls the execution of the decisions of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations on the territory of our country, we propose to create on the official website of the Ministry a special section for publishing all the decisions (opinions) of the Committee on Human Rights UN on complaints of Belarusian citizens,"- suggested Mr. Sudalenka in his appeal.

Belarus holds the second place after Spain on the number of decisions on complaints at the latest session of the Human Rights Committee.

According to the presidential decree of March 26, 1998 № 157 "On public holidays, public holidays and anniversaries in the Republic of Belarus" December 10 is marked as Human Rights Day. "To this date we ask the Foreign Ministry to start moving in the direction of the implementation of decisions of the UNHRC, from a simplest thing – their publication at the official site. All UN decisions contain recommendations, including the requirement of an official publication," commented the human rights activist to BelaPAN.

Bear in mind that in Belarus, human rights activists and citizens who filed complaints to the HRC establish a national human rights public association "Movement for the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "Covenant". However, the Ministry of Justice refuses to register the association, one of whose goals is to demand that the Belarusian authorities ensure implementation of the decisions of the UN Committee on Human Rights.