Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe: “The issue of disappeared persons in Belarus remains a priority for us”

Opening of the informational centre of the Council of Europe in Minsk does not mean that the situation with human rights in Belarus is left unattended.

The Council of Europe’s information center is opened today in Minsk at the Belarusian State University, journalism faculty. This international organisation which deprived Belarus the Special Guest status in early 1997, will be represented in the country officially for the first time, though at informational level/ the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Syarhei Martynau, Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, PACE Rapporteur on Belarus Andrea Rigoni and the rector of the Belarusian State University Syarhei Ablamejka are to take part in the opening ceremony.

Before launching the information centre, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maud de Boer-Buquicchio kindly agreed to answer questions of a journalist Iryna Khalip, exclusively to the Charter’97 website.

-- In its recommendations in connection with the 2006 report «Situation in Belarus on the eve of the presidential election» PACE said «if political conditions allow, set up an information office of the Council of Europe in Belarus, or use other existing information offices situated in neighbouring countries which are easily accessible for Belarusian citizens, to promote Council of Europe values in the fields of democracy, the rule of law and human rights among the Belarusian public». Do you think that the current political conditions make it possible to open an information office? What have changed?

-- Since the adoption of that recommendation there have been a number of contacts at political level between the Council of Europe and the Belarusian authorities, including, most recently, a visit by a PACE delegation in February and a visit by the Spanish Chairman of the Committee of Ministers in March; Belarusian parliamentarians have also participated in exchanges of views on Belarus in the Political Affairs Committee.

During these contacts the Belarusian authorities have manifested their interest in closer relations with the Council of Europe and their increased openness and readiness to host a Council of Europe Information Point in Minsk.

At the same time, as indicated by the report by Mr Rigoni, rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee, although Belarus is still far from Council of Europe standards, in recent months its authorities have made a number of steps in the right direction.

For the moment, the CoE provides support for the opening a small structure and not opening a full-fledged Information Office. In a way it is an ad hoc structure and we hope that this first step can be followed by other steps,and that this first modest presence of the CoE will help promote CoE values and standards in Belarus with a large audience. We see the Information Point as an open easily accessible structure able to provide information on the CoE to Belarusian citizens with different backgrounds, such as officials, students, academics, lawyers, NGOs. We also believe that this Point should become a platform for development of different CoE activities in Belarus. We shall start with information campaigns.

On the governmental side, the Committee of Ministers has been very attentive to Belarus in the recent past, and remains committed to the objective fixed at the Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw in 2005, of Belarus joining the family of European democracies. However, it is for Belarus to demonstrate its real commitment to this objective and to act accordingly; a crucial measure, which would give a very positive signal of its intentions, would be the abolition of the death penalty, or at least, as a first step, the introduction of a moratorium.

I would also like to pay tribute to successive Chairs of the Committee of Ministers – Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, and now Slovenia – for their constant efforts to support the creation and opening of the Information Point. All of these countries have considered Belarus as one of their priorities during their respective Chairmanships, in particular as regards support to civil society and the dissemination of Council of Europe values amongst the public at large.

-- In 2004 in its resolution «Disappeared persons in Belarus» PACE recommended to consider suspending the participation of Belarus in various Council of Europe agreements and activities, as well as any contacts between the Council of Europe and the Belarusian Government on a political level, until sufficient progress has been made and to apply political pressure (including sanctions) on the Belarusian Government in order to send it a strong signal that impunity for enforced disappearances is not tolerated by the international community. The Belarusian authorities ignore this document and do not conduct a proper investigation. Nevertheless Council of Europe starts a joint activity in Belarus. Does it mean that the case of the disappeared is closed for the Council of Europe?

The issue of disappeared persons remains a priority for the Council of Europe. The call for an independent inquiry remains unchanged.

Even if political contacts were frozen, working and technical contacts between Belarus and the Council of Europe continued also after the adoption of the PACE recommendation on Disappeared persons in Belarus

The opening of the Information Point implies the re-establishment of a dialogue between the Council of Europe and the Belarusian authorities – without which its opening would not have been possible – but it should not be mistaken as a sign that our Organisation has no concerns as regards the situation in the country. On the contrary, the Infopoint could well play a role in making some of these concerns known to the Belarusian public.

-- Recently the Political Committee of PACE took a decision to restore a special guest status to Belarus despite the fact that the regime in Belarus is not considered to be legitimate and the repression against the opposition and civil society continue. Don’t you think that this decision has discredited the same values that have to be promoted by an information office of the Council of Europe?

For the time being there is only a proposal to restore Special Guest status, which has been endorsed unanimously by the Political Affairs Committee. The plenary Assembly will hold a debate on this matter in the June 2009 part-session.

The proposal supports a change of strategy: from isolation to engagement. The Political Affairs Committee thinks that in order to promote the democratisation process in Belarus it is necessary to engage with the Belarusian authorities. This should not undermine in any way the support that the Assembly gives, and should continue to give, to the civil society.

In the Committee's proposal, restoration of Special Guest status would not be a blank cheque: it would be subjected to a special 'monitoring procedure'; within one year at the latest, the Bureau should make an assessment of the situation in Belarus, and evaluate to what extent the Assembly recommendations in the field of political prisoners, respect for political freedoms, freedom of the media, electoral reform and capital punishment have been complied with.

It should be noticed that, in the context of the restoration of Special Guest status, the Political Affairs Committee proposes also the establishment of a delegation of the Belarusian extraparliamentary opposition, to be associated to the work of the Assembly. This is a unique and exceptional measure, given that all delegations present in the Assembly are by their very nature composed by parliamentarians.

-- Information Point of the Council of Europe in Belarus is being opened in the state controlled university which automatically limits access to its activities for general public. Why isn’t it opened independently?

-- The Information Point is a joint project between the Council of Europe and the Belarus State University, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the University for taking on board the Information Point in its Faculty of Journalism. I look forward to the flourishing of the Information Point under its wing, and I can assure you of the full support of the Council of Europe, as the main partner in this enterprise, in making it a success. Under the terms of the agreement between our Organisation and the University, the Information Point is to be accessible for all citizens of Belarus, as a dissemination structure on all aspects of the Council, its standards, its institutions and its activities. For us, it is indeed an essential prerequisite of the successful operation of the Information Point that it be an open structure, accessible to all members of the public, and we shall follow this issue closely.

The Information Point will also provide support to thematic seminars and other Council of Europe activities, including possible co-operation activities with local and national authorities, and should contribute to the participation of Belarus in CoE campaigns on issues such as the abolition of the death penalty, or social cohesion activities focusing on issues such as children’s rights and the fight against domestic violence.

I hope too that the Infopoint will make it possible to reach out to the Belarusian civil society, especially young people, in a way which was not possible before.

-- Europe was condemning an unlawful regime in Belarus for more than 10 years. Why do you think it has so quickly and in such coordinated manner has changed its attitude to the regime and has recognized it?

-- The Council of Europe, the European Union, and the OSCE have regular high-level meetings at which the organisations discuss their respective positions on a number of issues related to developments in different European countries. On Belarus, the Council of Europe and the EU have, together, welcomed the recent positive steps taken by the authorities of Belarus, but have noted too the need for the authorities to uphold the current encouraging trend with more systematic progress by Belarus in adopting the fundamental values of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The fact that Belarus is among the participants of the Eastern European Partnership will help to further engage the country in this regard.