MINSK, 9 April (BelTA) – Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov delivered a video address at the Conference on Humanitarian Action, Remedy and Responsibility in unilateral sanctions environment in Geneva, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He expressed gratitude to the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Professor Alena Douhan for her professional and effective work over six years in explaining the problem of unilateral coercive measures (UCM) and elevating the international discussion on this topic to a high level.
“It is especially valuable that the special rapporteur has developed tools to collect data on human rights violations directly related to UCM, presented guidance documents on sanctions, business and human rights, and on humanitarian activities under sanctions, which will be discussed at this conference. We hope that the newly appointed special rapporteur, Ms. Zeina Jallad, will maintain and develop all the achievements of previous mandate holders in order to achieve the goal of freeing international relations from the practice of using UCM that negatively affect human rights,” noted Maxim Ryzhenkov.
“Unfortunately, despite the obviously acute nature of the problem of the negative impact of sanctions on the enjoyment of human rights, the initiators of restrictive measures prefer not to notice it and continue to use the sanctions whip as a tool of their foreign policy, declaring the legitimacy and justification of using such measures. From a human rights perspective, a fundamental question arises: is it permissible to use any measures that, even indirectly, lead to a deterioration of the living conditions of the civilian population? After all, the countries that initiate UCM openly declare that they deliberately impose them in order to negatively affect the lives of citizens in the countries affected by these sanctions,” emphasized the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs.
He also noted: “Thus, the West hopes to cause social unrest. In turn, it is allegedly supposed to lead to the replacement of legitimately elected incumbent governments that, for some reason, do not suit certain Western countries for political reasons. I remind you that today about 40 countries with a population of 2.5 billion are under illegal unilateral restrictive measures imposed by the West. At the same time, literally all spheres of life are permeated with sanctions.”
Maxim Ryzhenkov emphasized that particular concern is caused by the situation when restrictions impede the supply of vital medical drugs, including those for the treatment of chronic and rare diseases.
“The harm from such UCM is obvious,” said Maxim Ryzhenkov. “But it is unclear why this is not obvious to the UN. Why does the UN high commissioner for human rights not point out to Western countries the negative consequences of sanctions for the human rights system and the organization’s image in its ability to address such problems? The question is rhetorical. In the meantime, we only see the situation with UCM getting worse.”
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