Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus speaks at the HRC’s High-Level Segment
23.02.2021Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council on 23 February 23 Vladimir Makey, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, condemned the practice of unilateral economic sanctions, while pointing out that the practice was incompatible with concerns for human rights.
The Minister called upon the Western countries to stop using the topic of human rights with the purpose of politically discrediting legitimate governments, which they dislike, in order to remove them from power.
Belarus proposes to appraise progress in the realization of human rights in each and every individual country by means of an inclusive dialogue that factors in specific national development contexts.
Vladimir Makey went on to emphasize that the UN had no reason whatsoever to focus exclusively on the topic of human rights in Belarus. Belarus, for its part, continues to develop in a successful way in accordance with the Belarusian people’s decisions, despite all attempts at external destabilization in 2020 that sought to overthrow the incumbent government. Belarus retains its sovereignty and independence while doing its best to promote the realization of social and economic human rights of every citizen.
The Belarusian Minister rejected the collective West’s aspirations for assuming a role of an international arbiter and a global mentor in judging human rights records in other countries, and pointed out systemic violations of human rights committed in Western states, which, by the way, could be read out for hours.
Vladimir Makey urged the international community to put an end to the Council’s domination by the West in sponsoring issues on its agenda. Belarus proposes to bring the UN Human Rights Council back to the geographical and political balance, to the gist of the UN mandate, as well as to the fair and equitable consideration of problematic situations with human rights worldwide.
