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UN Renews Mandate Of Special Rapporteur On Belarus For One Year

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UN Renews Mandate Of Special Rapporteur On Belarus For One Year
MIKLÓS HARASZTI

The mandate of Miklós Haraszti has been renewed for a year due to political repressions in our country.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) extended the mandate of the special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus for one year. In Geneva, 18 countries voted for the adoption of this decision, 8 — against, 21 — abstained. Hungarian human rights activist Miklós Haraszti has occupied the position of the special rapporteur since 2012. Belarus traditionally does not recognize the mandate of the special rapporteur and refuses to cooperate with him, tut.by writes.

In the resolution, the HRC expresses "ongoing concern" about the human rights situation in Belarus, "especially with regard to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression of opinions, as evidenced by the reaction of the Government of Belarus to peaceful protests in February and March 2017."

The HRC also mentions reports of torture in prisons, "continuing repression of human rights defenders and civil society organizations", arrests of journalists in March 2017.

The resolution criticizes "the lack of specific and comprehensive legislation to combat discrimination that affects persons belonging to vulnerable groups and religious minorities".

The HRC calls for the full restoration of civil and political rights of former political prisoners and notes that political activists "continue to be mistreated and face false accusations."

"At the same time, no progress was made regarding the outstanding cases of enforced disappearance of political opponents," the document says.

The resolution calls on Belarus to urgently implement a profound reform of the legal base for elections and to remove long-standing systemic shortcomings before local elections in early 2018.

Belarus was supported by Russia, Nicaragua, the DPRK, Laos, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, China and Venezuela.

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