Фото: Reform.by
Thirty-seven OSCE participating States have issued a statement regarding repression in Belarus and called on the Belarusian authorities to stop human-rights violations. The statement was delivered at the OSCE Ministerial Council on 5 December. The text was published on the website of the UK Foreign Office.
The statement notes that since 2020 Belarus has seen systematic and continuous violations of human rights and repression directed against political opposition figures, human-rights defenders, civil society, journalists and others.
“We strongly condemn these violations, which target all segments of Belarusian society. We also strongly condemn the Belarusian authorities’ involvement and complicity in Russia’s unprovoked, unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. We call on the Belarusian authorities to ensure that no Ukrainian children are forcibly transferred to or through Belarus’ territory and to provide full transparency on any such cases,” the statement says.
The signatory states recalled that the Moscow Mechanism has been invoked twice with regard to Belarus — in 2020 and in 2023. Belarus has shown no progress in implementing the recommendations of either report, “thus underscoring its continued disregard for its international obligations and OSCE commitments.”
In July 2024 the Vienna Mechanism was invoked, but Belarus did not provide a substantive response to the concerns raised.
“On the contrary, the persecution and intimidation campaigns against all segments of society continue, and as highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, the overall human rights situation has continued to deteriorate over the past year, with new forms of repression added,” the authors state.
The signatory countries draw attention to the harsh conditions of detention and ill-treatment of political prisoners in Belarus.
“The UN Committee Against Torture has come to the inescapable conclusion that torture is a systematic practice in Belarus and women deprived of liberty are subjected to gender-specific ill-treatment. While the release of some political prisoners is a welcome development, we remain deeply concerned that Belarus continues to imprison and detain many more. We are also aware that many former prisoners upon release have been forced to leave Belarus or remain under surveillance and repression, which in practice extends their punishment beyond imprisonment, often leading to exile. We continue to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Ales Bialiatski, Maryia Kalesnikava, Mikalai Statkevich, Viktar Babaryka, Maksim Znak, Pavel Seviarynets and Andrzej Poczobut, and their effective rehabilitation. We reiterate our call on Belarusian authorities to refrain from new detentions and to stop persecuting individuals for exercising their human rights and freedoms,” the statement says.