UN appoints OHCHR fact-finding mission experts to Belarus
GENEVA (19 May 2021) – UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet today announced the appointment of three high-level experts to the UN Human Rights Office’s fact-finding mission on Belarus that will assist her in conducting a comprehensive examination of alleged human rights violations committed in Belarus since 1 May 2020, including the possible gender dimension of such violations.
The experts are Karinna Moskalenko (Russian Federation) who will serve as Chair, Susan Bazilli (Canada) and Marko Milanović (Serbia).
“The past year has seen the longstanding and chronic pattern of systemic violations in Belarus brought into sharp relief, intensifying in the context of the presidential election and beyond, with fundamental freedoms routinely denied,” said Bachelet. “The work of the fact-finding mission will play an important part in ensuring the accountability for the violations that have fuelled the crisis.”
In its resolution 46/20, adopted on 29 March 2021, the UN Human Rights Council condemned the ongoing grave violations of human rights in Belarus in connection with the 2020 presidential election. It requested the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor and report on the situation of human rights in the country, and to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse information and evidence with a view to contributing to accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims and, where possible, to identify those responsible.
The resolution requests the High Commissioner to present an interim oral update to the Human Rights Council at its forty-eighth session in September 2021, and a comprehensive written report at its forty-ninth session in March 2022.
Source: ohchr.org
