Belarus takes part in the meeting with the UN Human Rights Council mechanisms

On 3 September, the Belarusian diplomatic mission to International organizations in Geneva participated in a meeting with representatives of one of the UN human rights mechanisms: the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.

For reference: UN HRC special procedures or special mandates include rapporteurs, working groups, independent experts and other similar institutions set up and mandated by the Council to monitor a specific narrow theme within the general human rights spectrum in order to study it more closely and make recommendations).

In addressing the meeting, the representative of Belarus emphasized the consistent non-recognition of country mandates established without the consent of the government concerned. At the same time, the long-standing cooperation of Belarus with the thematic procedures was noted and the readiness for a professional and non-politicized dialogue was stated.

The attention of the meeting was drawn to the apparent neglect by many HRC thematic special procedures of the human rights problems in the Western countries against the background of acute and chronic violations in this area, and despite the claims of governments about the effectiveness of their law enforcement and judicial systems and human rights institutions. The deliberate and commissioned nature of such practices was underscored, given the funding of many mandates by earmarked contributions from Western states to exert political pressure on certain sovereign states.

An event on the margins of the UN Human Rights Council in July this year, organized by the diplomatic missions of Belarus, China, Russia and Venezuela on human rights in the West, showed that the HRC special procedures are responsible for creating a gap in human rights monitoring in the US, Canada and EU countries, and for the increasing impunity of the governments of these countries towards their citizens.

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