UN see “Climate of Fear”
Human rights situation in Belarus is getting worse and worse
7/5/2023 4:27 am
Almost three years have passed since the allegedly rigged presidential election in Belarus. At that time, the Lukashenko regime acted with extreme brutality against its own population. The UN sees no signs of relaxation – on the contrary.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur, the human rights situation in Belarus is catastrophic and continues to deteriorate. The government of ruler Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk is taking targeted action against the last dissenting voices in civil society, said the special rapporteur for the country, Anaïs Marin, before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The situation remains catastrophic. Unfortunately, it continues to deteriorate,” she said when presenting her annual report.
The government in Minsk has changed the already restrictive legislation with the aim of further reducing civil liberties. This leads to politically motivated persecution and conviction. The fact that no one is held accountable for human rights violations “fosters a climate of fear among victims and their families,” Marin said.
The French political scientist, who has been in office for five years, recalled that two years ago she had warned the Council against the “totalitarian turn” in Minsk, demonstrated by the “disregard for human life and dignity” during the crackdown on protests in the city Year 2020. At that time there had been demonstrations for weeks after the allegedly falsified presidential election, human rights organizations counted a total of around 33,000 arrests.
More than 1,500 people are still being held on politically motivated charges, with an average of 17 people being arbitrarily arrested every day since 2020. She has good reason to believe “that prison conditions for those convicted on politically motivated grounds will be tightened in a targeted manner by putting them in punishment cells for minor violations of prison rules,” Marin said.
“Hundreds of thousands forced into exile”
No one has been held accountable in Belarus for the arrests of tens of thousands of peaceful protesters in 2020, or for the violence or torture many have been subjected to, Marin said. The general impunity and the climate of fear resulting from the ongoing repression “have forced hundreds of thousands of Belarusians into exile”.
Human rights activists are subject to ongoing persecution, more than 1,600 “undesirable” organizations have been dissolved, including all remaining independent trade unions. Independent media have been branded as “extremist organizations” while academic freedom is being systematically attacked. “Ideological control and disciplinary measures limit the right to freedom of opinion and speech,” she said. Schooling is also subject to “ideological control,” Marin said. Children are “discouraged to speak their own minds. If there are different opinions, there are “threats and consequences”.
Anyone who speaks out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine or Belarus’ role at the beginning of the war faces problems. According to Marin, anti-war activities have led to numerous arrests, in some cases on charges of planning terrorist attacks – which are punishable by death in Belarus.
Belarus was immediately given the opportunity to comment before the plenary by the Human Rights Council, but was not represented by anyone.