The rights of tens of thousands of people in Belarus have been violated due to the “continuing repression” of the opposition, and this is a complete impunity, the UN denounced today in a report it published.
The study of the situation in Belarus “not only demonstrates the violations committed against people trying to exercise their fundamental human rights, but also highlights the inability of victims to access justice,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Human Rights Michelle Bachelet during the presentation of the exhibition.
“The authorities’ relentless and large-scale actions to crush opposition to the regime and to suppress civil society, the independent media and opposition organizations, while protecting the perpetrators of these actions “Belarus,” he said.
Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s strongman, has won a sixth term in office with elections in August 2020 widely criticized by the international community and the opposition. Since then, Lukashenko has pursued a policy of repression, which has escalated into any form of political opposition and criticism from civil society.
In late March 2021, the UN Human Rights Council called on Bachelet to investigate these violations.
The report released today covers the period leading up to the 9 August 2020 elections, as well as the post-election period to 31 December 2021. It was based on 145 interviews, as well as a “wide range of information and evidence” analysis.
The report shows that between May 2020 and May 2021, at least 37,000 people were arrested, many of whom were remanded in custody for a period of up to 15 days. Of those, about 13,500 were arbitrarily arrested and detained between August 9th and 14th alone.
According to information gathered by the UN, torture and ill-treatment were “widespread and systematic”, with people being targeted for their actual or alleged opposition to the government or the election results.
Many victims were afraid to file a lawsuit, while those who did saw their cases dismissed, according to the UN.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights notes that it has good reason to believe that 969 people were still in prison at the end of 2021 for political reasons. As of March 4, that number had risen to 1,084. Many of them were sentenced to ten years or more in prison.
The report concludes that the extent of the violations, their “generalized and systematic” nature, as well as the evidence that there is an “official policy” for these violations by many state institutions require a more thorough assessment of the available evidence. from the point of view of international criminal law.
In addition to the lack of investigations, “there is an active policy aimed at protecting the perpetrators of these violations and preventing them from being held accountable, as evidenced by the level of retaliation, intimidation of victims and eyewitnesses, attacks on lawyers and defenders of human rights “, the report concludes.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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