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Belarus-Russia human rights report presented to OSCE in Vienna
Irina Velichko. Photo courtesy of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
MINSK, 7 July (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia presented their third joint report Human Rights Situation in Certain Countries at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna on 7 July. Irina Velichko, Head of the Main Directorate for Multilateral Diplomacy of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Grigory Lukiyantsev, Director of the Department for Multilateral Human Rights Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, presented the document, the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told BelTA.
“We continue to advocate for strict compliance with universal human rights by all states without the use of ‘double standards.’ After all, imposing democracy based on one’s own templates of international human rights provisions is destructive to international relations and jeopardizes sustainable development,” Irina Velichko emphasized. “The report introduces a necessary balance to the consideration of human rights issues at the international level, demonstrating that there are no perfect countries in the world. Consequently, no one has the right to arbitrary actions or supremacy in interstate relations.”
The diplomat pointed out that the report is not aimed at confrontation over human rights issues. Instead, it presents compelling arguments for Western countries to take domestic measures to eradicate systemic violations of citizens’ rights in order to match their self-promoted image as model states governed by the rule of law. “The cases cited in the report confirm that the Western human rights model is failing to bear this burden at this stage,” she stated.
“Today, the fight to ensure human rights serves as a blanket justification not only for blatant interference in the domestic political and electoral processes of sovereign states but also for taking measures to strangle their economies,” she continued. “Unilateral coercive measures imposed by certain Western countries against so-called ‘external enemies,’ which are essentially states with which the West fails to build bilateral relations, are boomeranging back, hitting the citizens of the very countries that initiated these illegal sanctions.”
Irina Velichko described current global conflicts as the result of the mindless “export” of democracy without due regard for the political, economic, and cultural systems of other countries.
“The cynical and exploitative approach of the collective West toward other states, rooted in a sense of impunity, has reduced the topic of human rights to absolute absurdity, turning it into a bone of contention and the primary political yardstick for building interstate relations,” the diplomat stated. “We strongly urge the West to abandon its mentoring role and focus on resolving its own domestic problems, which are driven by the short-sighted and destructive policies of Western elites to satisfy their fleeting and opportunistic political ambitions.”
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