Belarus Concerned over UN Silence About Human Rights Violations in West

The fact was emphasized by Larysa Belskaja, a representative of the Belarus delegation, a counselor of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Belarus in the UN, in her speech during an interactive dialogue with Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, regarding the encouragement and protection of human rights in New York.

The press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry quoted Larysa Belskaja as saying that Belarus observes its commitments regarding human rights in full.

“We are ready to interact with human rights mechanis of the UN, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the basis of an objective and unprejudiced approach. Unfortunately, the authority and efforts of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights are often undermined not only by ‘the refusal of governments to cooperate’ as it is noted in a report of the UN High Commissioner, but primarily by the lack of willingness of the Office to build interaction with countries taking into account the principle of sovereign equality of nations,” she said.

“It is undermined by the use of unreliable sources of information for monitoring country situations, a predetermined biased attitude towards the official view of governments, the lack of consideration for state interests in efforts meant to build up the national potential regarding human rights,” said the Belarusian envoy.

“We would like to express our concern by the biased and selective monitoring of country situations in individual countries and the UNHCHR silence regarding the violations of human rights in Western countries”.

Larysa Belskaja also remarked that although the UN High Commissioner proclaim the counteraction of the fomentation of national, ethnic, and religious hatred as an important area of efforts of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “unfortunately, we didn’t see the Office and its leadership respond adequately to the scandalous situation involving the fomentation of religious hatred on a global scale under the guise of freedom of speech”.

“Protests against the film Innocence of Musli have caused mass riots and victi among civilians in various countries across the globe. Belarus is also concerned that so far the UN High Commissioner has not responded to actions of individual countries that use unilateral coercive measures to put political pressure on other countries.

“The High Commissioner should insist on the removal of unilateral coercive measures against all the countries, against which sanctions have been applied, due to the effect the coercive measures have on rights of the general public.

“We hope that in line with resolution 19/32 of the UN Human Rights Council on human rights and unilateral coercive measures the UNHCHR will hold a relevant seminar before the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council to discuss the effect that the application of unilateral coercive measures has on human rights,” stated Larysa Belskaja.

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