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Report To UN: Belarusian Government Return To Large-Scale Repression

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Report To UN: Belarusian Government Return To Large-Scale Repression
Miklos Haraszti

A report on the human rights situation in Belarus has been published. Miklos Haraszti will present it to the UN next month.

The Belarus government has returned to a policy of large-scale repression, causing a dramatic deterioration in human rights, the report states according to Reuters.

Last month the United States extended sanctions relief for Belarus for a further six months, part of an effort to engage with its veteran leader President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The European Union last year ended five years of sanctions against Belarus.

The report by Miklos Haraszti calls on the international community to remain vigilant on human rights in Belarus.

"The human rights situation in Belarus has seen a dramatic deterioration," – the report states.

A suppression of peaceful protests in March was the severest crackdown since 2010, which ended a brief period where the government had been reticent about using force.

"The Special Rapporteur regrets that his warnings about the dangers inherent in the systemic character of the entrenched oppressive laws have proved right," – the report said.

Haraszti's report said more than 900 people were detained "on trumped-up charges", including opposition leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and foreign visitors.

"It is another instance of the cyclical pattern of the human rights policy of the authorities. Over the past two decades, they have repeatedly returned to repression, following brief periods of relative liberalization, while leaving intact the legal order that was purposefully developed to suppress several basic human rights," – the report said.

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