Belarus refuses to cooperate with UN body

The Belarusian authorities refuse to cooperate with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

This information appeared in March 2013, but human rights activists obtained the official document declaring the position of the Belarusian authorities only some days ago. Official Minsk refuses to collaborate with the UN Working Group as a response to the Group's decision on Ales Bialiatski's case adopted last year. The Group found the arrest of the Belarusian human rights activist illegal and arbitrary.

“We regard the decision taken by the Working Group on Bialiatski's case as an attempt to acquit the criminal by declaring him a human rights defender and interfering with internal affairs of the sovereign state,” says the statement by the Belarusian delegation at the session of the UN Human Rights Council on March 5. “In these conditions of extreme political bias of the Working Group and the lack of professional ethics in its activities, Belarus sees no reason for further cooperation with the Working Group in its present form.”

Human rights activist Tatsiana Raviaka said to charter97.org she didn't know other examples of refusing to cooperate with the UN body.

“The Belarusian delegation said at the HRC session in March that the country refused to cooperate with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. We saw the official statement only some days ago. It is a very serious step by official Minsk, so we hadn't made that information public before we received official confirmation. I don't know other cases when countries have refused to cooperate with such a body of the UN as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. We have repeatedly seen that Minsk refuses to implement decisions of the Human Rights Committee, but this case is refusal to implement obligations as part of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Tatsiana Raviaka says.

The human rights activist said that on May 17, Viasna deputy head Valiantsin Stefanovich sent Belarusian foreign minister Uladzimir Makei an appeal over the refusal to fulfil the decisions of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the case of human rights defender Ales Bialiatski. Leaders of international human rights groups sent similar appeals yesterday.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a special procedure of the UN. Members of the Group were selected by a consultative group of the UN Human Rights Council on the ground of their experience, knowledge, independence and objectivity.