French Anaïs Marin Recommended For Post Of UN Special Rapporteur On Belarus

The decision on the appointment of a special rapporteur will be taken tomorrow.

Frenchwoman Anaïs Marin has been recommended for the position of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation with human rights in Belarus. The corresponding letter was sent to the members of the UN Council on Human Rights by the head of the HRC Vojislav Shutz, the Viasna HRC reported citing naviny.by.

The decision on the appointment of a special rapporteur of the HRC will be taken on September 28, the final day of the autumn session in Geneva.

Steinar Gil (Norway), Satvinder Juss (Great Britain), Valerie Mogi (France), Daniel Mekonen (Eritrea), Petre Roman (Romania), John Joseph Ryan (Ireland), Andrew Wilson (Great Britain) contended for the position.

Current special rapporteur on Belarus Miklós Haraszti will remain on this post till the end of October 2018.

On July 6, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the extension of the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on Belarus for another year, basing on the report of Haraszti. 19 countries voted for the adoption of the resolution, 6- against, 21 countries abstained.

"The Council urges the Government of Belarus to cooperate fully with the special rapporteur, including by providing them with access to visit the country in their official capacity in order to help the Government fulfill its international human rights obligations and to consider the implementation of these recommendations, and also urges the Government to cooperate fully with the mandate holders of the thematic special procedures," the resolution reads.

In autumn the report prepared by Haraszti will be presented at the session of the UN General Assembly.

The next report on the human rights situation in Belarus is to be presented at the 41st session of the HRC (in June 2019) and the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (in October 2019), and should be prepared by the new special rapporteur.

Anaïs Marin was born in 1977. She is a political analyst specializing in international relations, interested in post-communist transformations in Central and Eastern Europe. She speaks fluent French, English and Russian, understands the Belarusian language and knows how to read in Belarusian.