Belarus Initiates Discussion on Human Rights in the West at the Human Rights Council

On July 9, 2021, on the margins of the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Permanent Mission of Belarus in Geneva, in partnership with the Geneva-based permanent missions of China, Russia and Venezuela organized an online side-event on the situation with human rights in the West. The discussion focused on the problems with and reasons for the lack of international monitoring and United Nations response to human rights violations in Western countries.

The event was attended by diplomats, parliamentarians, representatives of international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academia and mass media from more than 20 countries.

The audience was familiarized with the report of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus on the most resonant cases of human rights violations in individual countries, as well as with the report of Russia’s Foreign Ministry on the human rights situation in individual countries. Moreover, the event has featured presentations that provided assessments on violations of the rights of national minorities by the governments of the Baltic states, and dwelt on the causes of racism in Western societies, primarily in the United States.

The participants have been unanimous in pointing out that there are no ideal countries in terms of human rights. In this regard they have underscored that the claims by Western countries to international leadership on human rights are groundless.

Those who have taken part in the discussion condemned the West's attempts to use human rights for political manipulation of international organizations and states alike, for sticking political labels based on Western assessments, for dividing governments into “expellers” and “laggards”, for political pressure and economic sanctions imposed on the latter.

As for the reasons accounting for such behavior by the West the participants cited, among others, the remnants of colonial psychology that helps forge in the political elite the superiority complex, which, in turn, degenerated into overconfidence and snobbery, the desire to cement and expand the dominance of the Western model of political statehood and thus prevent states that refuse to Western patterns in matters of political, social and economic organization of their societies from making progress in their own indigenous sustainable development.

Against the background of countless examples of human rights violations in the EU, the USA, Canada and other Western states, the participants pointed to the nearly complete lack of attention to these issues on the part of the UNHCHR, the UN Human Rights Council and its special procedures and mandate holders, as well as international human rights NGOs. The fact that the bulk of resources for the implementation of human-rights related activities by the United Nations and civil society organizations comes directly from Western donors has been identified by the participants as the true reason for this “purchased” silence.

The event’s results will be instrumental in drawing attention of international media and ordinary citizens in Western countries to the real situation with human rights situation in the West, and in stimulating a greater degree of involvement on the part of UN human rights mechanisms in monitoring and responding to human rights violations in the EU, USA, Canada, etc.

The discussion has been conducive to a greater understanding by the international community of the reasons standing behind the West’s embrace of human rights’ politicization of human rights and its desire to use human rights to justify its own geopolitical ambitions.

The participants voiced proposals as to how to address the West’s actions on human rights in other countries, which, by the way, are detrimental to both international peace and security and international cooperation, in order to facilitate sustainable development of all countries and peoples.

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