UN HRC extends mandates of special rapporteur, experts on Belarus
April 4, Pozirk. The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Belarus by a majority vote at its 58th session yesterday, extending the mandate of Special Rapporteur Nils Muižnieks for another year.
Muižnieks, in charge of monitoring human rights in Belarus, is expected to prepare new reports for the 62nd session of the HRC and the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in 2026.
The HRC also renewed the mandate of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus for one year. The HRC established the Group in April 2024 to investigate circumstances and root causes of all rights abuses allegedly committed in Belarus since May 1, 2020. This includes the gender and age dimensions and the impact on victims and survivors.
In their inaugural report, the experts stressed the need for accountability, noting that prosecuting those responsible for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity is crucial to dismantling impunity and ensuring justice for the victims in Belarus.
The HRC resolution adopted yesterday condemned the ongoing “widespread and systematic violations of international human rights law” in Belarus, noting continuing arbitrary arrests on political grounds, deprivation of the right to life and to liberty, enforced disappearance, torture, ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence.
It urged Minsk to comply with its obligations under international human rights law and immediately and unconditionally release and rehabilitate all persons unlawfully arrested and persecuted for exercising their rights.
Twenty-five out of 47 HRC members supported the document, five voted against with 17 abstained.
The HRC established the mandate of the special rapporteur on Belarus in 2012 with annual renewals. Muižnieks replaced Anaïs Marin in this capacity last year.
UN experts urge Minsk to clarify Cichanoŭski's “enforced disappearance”
March 9, Pozirk. A group of UN experts demanded from Minsk information about the whereabouts of jailed former presidential hopeful Siarhiej Cichanoŭski on the second anniversary of his incommunicado detention, which they described as “enforced disappearance.” “We are deeply concerned …