Right Livelihood and Viasna called on the UN to create an independent mechanism for Belarus to investigate human rights violations
On September 22, within the framework of the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Belarus was heard. After that, the participating states and non-governmental organizations made their speeches.
During the interactive dialogue on September 25, the Right Livelihood Foundation presented a joint speech together with Viasna human rights center. The Foundation thanked the High Commissioner for his attention to the situation in Belarus, where human rights activities are equated with extremism, and fundamental rights and freedoms are criminalized. The mission also drew attention to the number of political prisoners and the inhuman conditions in which they are held, as well as the atmosphere of fear inside the country, due to which more and more Belarusians are forced to go abroad. Right Livelihood noted that repressions are also intensifying against them and recalled the permission of trials in absentia and the ban on issuing passports to all Belarusians abroad.
During the report, the foundation emphasized the role of Viasna in disclosing systemic human rights violations in Belarus, as well as increasing pressure on the organization when the authorities recognized it as an “extremist formation”.
"We cannot allow abuses to go unnoticed and forgotten," the speech says. "Accountability must be ensured. Therefore, we call on the Council to consider creating a fully independent investigative mechanism for Belarus and continue to call on the Belarusian authorities to release all political prisoners, including members of Viasna: Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovich, Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova, and Andrei Chapiuk, and immediately fulfill their international obligations in the field of human rights."
