United Nations Human Rights Committee is to consider the periodic report of Belarus in July 2015

Consideration of the periodic report of Belarus in the United Nations Human Rights Committee rescheduled from the 113 session (March 2015) to the 114th session that is to be held in July 2015. Information about this appeared on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

According to human rights defender Raman Kisliak, the previous periodic report of Belarus under the procedure determined by Art. 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was considered by the Committee in October 1997. In its latest comments, the Committee noted that the next periodic report Belarus should submit before November 7, 2001. Belarus provided information on human rights, but only with a 10-year delay - on December 15, 2011.

There is to be held only the first stage of this report at the session of the Committee in July of the next year. The state on the basis of its reports and information received from non-governmental organizations will be asked specific questions on specific issues in the field of civil and political rights to which Belarus has to respond. At one of the next sessions will be considered the state answers to these questions. And only after that the Committee will make its comments and recommendations on the report of the State.

United Nations Human Rights Committee will consider the implementation of the International Covenant on political and civil rights in Belarus for the period from November 1997 to March 2015.
In October 2009 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has adopted a new procedure for the consideration of reports from States, according to which they send to the States a number of questions to the reports and then they consider written responses. According to this procedure, the State’s response will be considered as a periodic report for the purposes of Art. 40 of the Covenant. The procedure for consideration of periodic reports also provides an alternative report to the Committee on the implementation of the Covenant by the government made by human rights non-governmental organizations.