MOSCOW, 17 March (BelTA) – The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is not ready to give an objective and unbiased evaluation of the situation in Belarus, BelTA learned from a Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.
According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Organization and its specialized institutions lost their neutral and unpoliticized status in the last few years. UN agencies increasingly frequently become conductors of opportunistic interests of a certain group of countries, the source said. Prepared by the UNHCHR, the report “Situation of human rights in Belarus in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election and in its aftermath” was compiled in line with the UN Human Rights Council's resolution 46/20. This resolution demonstrates vivid anti-Belarusian bias, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The resolution was adopted only by one third of the votes of the UN Human Rights Council member states. The report is another confirmation of the unpreparedness of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to give an objective and unbiased evaluation of the human rights situation in Belarus.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the report had been prepared with assistance of allegedly independent international experts and relies heavily on unfounded accusations directed against Belarusian leadership. “The document is based on interviews with some witnesses and victims, whose identity cannot be verified allegedly due to reasons of confidentiality. In other words, the veracity and authenticity of the information the report contains, the reliability of sources of information cannot be objectively confirmed,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
According to the source, the report fails to mention illegal actions of organizers of mass riots, who openly called for civil disobedience and violent overthrow of the Belarusian government and deliberately created dangerous situations for citizens. The report ignores confirmed facts of organization and coordination of the riots from abroad, which is a direct interference of third countries in Belarus' domestic affairs, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is convinced that conclusions and recommendations of the report are designed to introduce punitive measures against the Belarusian government instead of putting together an objective picture of the past events. The report discredits prestige and reputation of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and undermines fundamentals of the UN Human Rights Council's operation.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “Russia will continue speaking up against politicizing human rights mechanisms of international organizations, including the United Nations Organization and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, against using them as platforms for unfounded accusations against authorities of sovereign countries. We are convinced that only the Belarusian nation and its legal representatives instead of self-declared ‘leaders of democratic Belarus' and their Western curators can determine the country's future.”
This is why the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised the successful organization of the constitutional referendum in Belarus on 27 February. The ministry described the voting process as free and open. “We consider the constitutional reform as the most important component of the process of modernization of Belarus' political system, which was launched by the Belarusian People's Congress in February 2021. We are convinced that the successful completion of the reform will allow satisfying demand of the larger part of the republic's population for changes, will foster consolidation of healthy forces of the Belarusian society, including a constructive opposition, and ultimate resolution of domestic political differences,” the message reads.
