Khvastou’s rude comments about EU at UN Human Rights Council

Belarusian authorities recommend the European Union not to interfere with the political struggle in other countries.

Such a statement was made by a Belarusian representative at the UN in Geneva on September 22 during the debate as a part of the 18th session of the UN Human Rights Council held on September 12-30.

According to reports of the press-service of the UN Human Rights Council, Mikhail Khvastou (Khvostov) expressed gratitude to the countries which supported Belarus during this debate. As for the EU, as stated by the representative of the official Minsk, “in a free world no one can tell people how they should live and in what direction to move.”

Khvastou has also underlined: Belarusian authorities would push for the issue of the situation in Belarus to be removed from the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). As said by him, dissatisfaction with the presidential election in Belarus is interference in the home affairs of the country, and discussing the Belarusian question had demonstrated “all the shortcomings” of the UNHRC.

In his turn Kyung-wha Kang, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted during the debate that she had been given encouragement by the statements of the Belarusian side about readiness to continue cooperation with the High Representative’s Office. At the same time, she stressed, in connection with these recommendations given in the report, Belarus should demonstrate real moves in reconsidering the legislation in order to bring it in line with international standards.

A number of countries, including the North Korea and Syria, have condemned this report and stated that politically motivated reports could only deteriorate the relations between countries.

Representatives of the EU countries expressed their concern about the human rights situation in Belarus and in particular existence of political prisoners in the country.