EU Statement – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Interactive dialogue on human rights in Belarus

Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States. We thank the Special Rapporteur for your recent report and strongly support your mandate. 

We remain gravely concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus and strongly condemn the ongoing gross, systematic and widespread human rights violations, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity, as well as the closed civic space, including the systematic dismantling of civil society and transnational repression. Reports of arbitrary detention, torture and forced labour in detention facilities are alarming. The EU urges the Belarusian authorities to abolish the death penalty, and as a first step, to introduce a moratorium.

While we welcome the recent release of several political prisoners, new arrests and re-arrests continue and many people remain arbitrarily detained. We continue to urge for the immediate and unconditional release and effective rehabilitation of all political prisoners, and stress the obligation to uphold their rights.

We urge the Belarusian authorities to stop their involvement in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, to immediately ensure the safe return to Ukraine of all unlawfully deported Ukrainian children, and to halt the instrumentalisation of migrants for political purposes, in complicity with Russia. We urge Belarus to respect its international obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.

As mentioned in the report, repression in Belarus affects not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social, and cultural rights, including in the labour sphere where restrictive measures target those deemed disloyal, limiting their employment opportunities and violating their right to an adequate standard of living. 

The report of the SR presents how the ongoing large-scale crackdown on civil and political rights since the presidential elections of 2020 has led to multiple violations of economic and social rights, such as the use of forced labour for meagre or no pay, as a form of punishment for persons unjustly incarcerated, and by the suppression of trade union rights.

Mr. Special Rapporteur, 

How can the international community best contribute to holding the Belarusian authorities accountable for their gross violations of human rights?  What more can be done to protect economic and social rights in employment and labour?

Lastly, we reiterate our call on Belarus to cooperate with international human rights monitoring mechanisms, including your mandate.