The Statement by the Permanent Representative of Belarus at the UN Human Rights Council 51st session

UN Human Rights Council
51st session
Statement by Larysa Belskaya
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus

September 23, 2022

Dear Mr Chairman,
Dear colleagues,
Once again, we heard a presentation that is not only very far from reality in my country, but also deliberately distorts it.

Such reports commissioned by western sponsors and initiated by them resolutions leave the sovereign and independent state with no other choice but do not to recognize them as legitimate.

Belarus continues to take part in this discussion, hoping that the OHCHR, as a UN structure, will follow the principles of neutrality and impartially.

We expected that OHCHR would conduct similar investigations regarding human rights violations in connection with, for example, the US presidential elections.

Yet it is obvious that all reports on Belarus have the same sources and the authors — these are “start-up teams” and “projects”, which as the OHCHR reporting, are actively working on Belarus. It seems that these “human rights entrepreneurs” are competing with each other how to interpret information in order to further defame Belarus.

In Belarus, as in any other country, there are persons who have violated the law and held accountable for their actions in accordance with the legislation. Court sentences in Belarus are issuing not for participating in political or public life, but for committing specific violations of national legislation. While manipulating the numbers of those brought to justice, no one talks about those who have already been pardoned and released. No one mentions the upcoming amnesty.

We absolutely do not understand the logic of those making distinction between “internal terrorists” who tried to capture or assaulted administrative buildings and attacked policemen in the Western capitals, and participants of similar extremist actions in Belarus.

What is the fundamental difference between actions of Belarusian law enforcement officers and actions of their Western counterparts in ensuring law and order? The only difference, perhaps, is that special equipment (water cannons, tear gas) is used extremely rarely in Belarus, but regularly in the West.

Can someone of the report authors explain why journalists should not have a different point of view than Western propaganda, why do journalists who support the Belarusian state are included into Western sanctions lists, and why access to their media outlets is blocked in the West?

Such approaches by the UN human rights structure no longer look like just double standards, its look like an open subordination of the entire system to the task of destroying pluralism and multilateralism pursued by the western elites.

Under the slogans of protecting human rights, the West is trying to make pariahs out of “obstinate” states, imposing all sorts of sanctions against them, excluding them from international cooperation and even closing physical borders for ordinary people. Isn't such a policy a direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

It is not Belarus that builds fences, barbed wire fences against migrants, who are obviously unworthy of having the “privilege” of free movement. “Bad” migrants continue to be intimidated, beaten, poisoned by dogs and squeezed out from the “promised” European land. Both children and pregnant women are victims.

It is not Belarus that closed its borders from its neighbors, destroying ordinary human contacts between people. On the contrary, since 2017, my country has opened a visa-free regime for many states, and the possibilities of free entry into the country are only expanding.  And a huge number of people visiting Belarus could see a picture of a normal and calm life, and not the “horrors” that the OHCHR reports scare them.

What contributes to the development of friendly relations between peoples and a better understanding of each other — the “iron curtain” and discrimination or openness?

Although it is hardly worth appealing to the justice of those who resolve issues through “colored resolutions” and inflict chaos in countries in order to solve their problems, including economic ones.

We are proud that Belarus did not become another “experiment of democratization”. Belarus managed to survive with the support of friends, to save its state and a chance for normal evolutionary development.

The country is undergoing constitutional reforms. Peacefully, calmly and independently, we are transforming our political system.

We are ready for constructive cooperation, but do not accept blackmailing and pressure. Belarus welcomes all states that defend their sovereign right to independently determine their own path of development, domestic and foreign policies that meet national interests, and thanks them for their solidarity and support!

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