Belarus votes against UN resolution on refugees’ right to return to Georgia’s breakaway regions

June 8, BPN. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution recognizing the right of refugees and internally displaced persons to return to Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, newsgeorgia.ge reported.

A total of 100 countries supported the resolution with 59 abstentions and nine countries opposing it, among them Belarus, Russia, Syria, Cuba and North Korea.

The resolution condemns forced demographic changes in Russia-held regions of Georgia, affirming the rights of displaced persons, regardless of their ethnicity, to return to their homes in dignity and safety. The UN votes on the resolution annually since 2008.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry stressed its importance amid the “grave human rights situation” in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Russia’s war on Ukraine that caused “a significant increase in the number of refugees and displaced persons.”

Back in 2008, Russia was involved in an armed conflict with Georgia and supported separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Belarus has not yet officially joined the small list of countries that recognize these breakaway regions as independent states.

In September 2022, following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Alaksandr Łukašenka visited Abkhazia without notifying Georgian authorities. He met with Abkhazia’s separatist ruler Aslan Bzhania who visited Minsk a few months later.

Georgia’s authorities criticized the Belarusian ruler’s contacts with the breakaway region.