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10 Feb 2014

Belarus’ Foreign Ministry presents second report on human rights abuses worldwide

MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – The Foreign Ministry of Belarus has presented the second report describing the most notorious violations of human rights worldwide, BelTA has learnt.

Yuri Ambrazevich, head of the main department for multilateral diplomacy of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, noted that the report covers only those nations that imposed sanctions against Belarus. Those are the United States, most of the European Union nations and Canada. In his words, the report is based on open sources, like the results of the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in the United Nations Human Rights Council, findings of the special procedures of the Council, information of the international, regional and national NGOs, as well as media reports.

Yuri Ambrazevich pointed out that the Foreign Ministry of any country – Belarus is no exception here – aims to use foreign policy instruments to secure the most comfortable external environment for the country’s development. He stated that the actions of a number of countries towards Belarus cause real damage to the country. “These states claim that Belarus has a poor human rights record and use these allegations to restrict political and interagency contacts, ban supplies of Belarusian goods to these countries, and engage in a smear campaign against our country. It is obvious that we perceive such actions as an obstacle to the development of Belarus,” the Foreign Ministry representative said. He noted that unfortunately the Foreign Ministry has to “divert its attention from constructive work into efforts to confront such activities and to remove these obstacles”.

Yuri Ambrazevich noted that the criticism of the human rights record in Belarus mainly comes from international organizations. “For some obvious reasons, foreign powers dominate the majority of international forums and take advantage of this situation to promote their own agenda, including agenda against Belarus. Therefore, Belarusian diplomats representing the country at international organizations try to draw the attention of these organizations to the issues that persist in western states, not only countries located to the east of Vienna,” Yuri Ambrazevich said. In his words, the report compiled by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry will be used primarily by Belarusian diplomats working at international organizations.

He emphasized that Belarus is an open country where virtually all households have the access to the Internet. “Belarus is often labeled as the country that has the worst human rights record in the region, and even in the world. We want our people and foreigners to clearly understand that this is absolutely not true,” he underlined.

“There are no states with a perfect human rights record. Fortunately, our western countries admit it openly and publically. Therefore, we are even more confused about their selective approach to the human rights agenda in Belarus,” the head of the main department for multilateral diplomacy of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.

Yuri Ambrazevich noted that Belarus is actively cooperating with international human rights organizations. Thus, over the past years Belarus submitted five periodic reviews on the implementation of human rights agreements to the UN agencies. These agencies include the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2008), the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2009), the United Nations Committee against Torture (2009), the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2010), the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2012). Yuri Ambrazevich emphasized that these reviews were successfully defended. Besides, in May 2010 Belarus passed a kind of a universal test at the UN Human Rights Council. The diplomat meant the Universal Periodic Review of the Council. The recommendations to improve the human rights record in Belarus were formulated on the basis of this review. Belarus accepted these recommendations. In February 2012, in the spirit of goodwill Belarus submitted an interim report on the implementation of these recommendations to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Yuri Ambrazevich informed that an agreement was reached with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to hold several thematic events in Belarus in 2014. These events include seminars about ombudsmen, freedom and status of judges and the rights of people with disabilities. Work will be continued on national reports to be submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the committee on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The both reports are to be submitted at the start of 2015.

“The Foreign Ministry is convinced that these efforts make a direct and positive contribution to the improvement of the social and political situation in our country. They also demonstrate that Belarus honors its international commitments,” Yuri Ambrazevich underlined.

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