On the participation of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Yuri Ambrazevich in the UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development

On March 13, 2024, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Yuri Ambrazevich spoke in Geneva (Switzerland) at the headquarters of the UN European Office at the high-level segment of the Regional European Forum on Sustainable Development. In his speech the Deputy Minister assessed current trends in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Europe, identified limiting factors, presented Belarusian experience and proposals for strengthening joint efforts to achieve the SDGs.

On the sidelines of the forum, Yuri Ambrazevich held a meeting with Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe Tatiana Molcean. The current interaction of the Government of Belarus with the UNECE secretariat was discussed. The Deputy Minister emphasized the commitment to the unifying mandate of the UNECE, unique for Europe. The interlocutors expressed confidence in the importance of maintaining, in the context of political disagreements, industry-specific professional interaction at the expert level between all countries of Europe, Central Asia, the USA, Canada and Israel in order to ensure the daily functioning of interconnected systems in the economy, transport, ecology, customs, statistics and other areas of social-economic life.

The Deputy Minister held meetings with Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees Raouf Mazou and the Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration Irena Vojáčková-Sollorano. Current cooperation and promising projects of interest to the Belarusian side were discussed at the meetings.

The leadership of UNHCR and IOM was provided with objective information about the national efforts of Belarus to combat illegal migration. The participants of the meeting agreed on the critical importance of international cooperation for success in combating illegal migration. The common interest and readiness for more active regional and bilateral cooperation on this issue was emphasized.

Representatives of IOM and UNHCR were also informed of the ongoing practice of forced expulsion of illegal migrants to the territory of Belarus by the authorities of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, accompanied by deaths, injuries and ill-treatment of foreigners trying to enter the territory of the European Union states.

On the same day, the Deputy Minister held a meeting with the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif. A critical exchange of views took place on the role and place of the concept of human rights in state development. The interlocutor was informed about the implementation by the Republic of Belarus of national obligations in the field of international reporting arising from the international treaties signed by it in the field of human rights, and about the absence of any debts.

The Deputy Minister emphasized Belarus’s focus on active involvement in the processes of managing the international dimension of the topic of human rights, focusing on national approaches, the essence of which is the complementarity of international cooperation in relation to national efforts and responsibility, in the implementation of such cooperation exclusively on the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, the supremacy of national sovereignty, mutual respect and equality of states.

Detailed information was provided to OHCHR about the practice of violent actions in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, leading to the death and injury of foreign migrants. The Deputy Minister emphasized that issues of respecting the rights of third citizens cannot be considered as an internal matter of an individual state and always have an international dimension. That is why such actions against migrants from foreign countries constitute a direct violation of human rights and require close attention of the international community.

The Deputy Minister also met with Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Sztáray. The interlocutors discussed the state and prospects of bilateral cooperation.

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