The Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s report titled “The Most High-profile Instances of Human Rights Abuse in Certain Countries of the World in 2013” describes human rights violations in the United States, Canada and 21 member countries of the European Union. It dwells upon the most high-profile human rights violations deals (discrimination, race hatred, crackdown on mass protests), MFA officials say. At that, the Ministry omitted reference of human rights violations in our country.
Uladzimir Labkovich, a human rights activist, approves of the MFA’s issuing such reports. ‘Thus, Minsk admits that human rights are universal for the whole world. It’s a good sign that such international organisations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are mentioned in the report: they repeatedly adopted resolutions on human rights violations in Belarus,’ he said.
At the same time, the report is an attempt to respond to the West’s accusations which was made in the style of the Cold War.
It is interesting that the report concerns a number of countries that impose sanctions on Belarus on the basis of negative assessments of its human rights situation while outrage on justice in the countries the regime maintains close ties with is disregarded, the expert stressed.
In its report the Belarusian MFA might have taken into account solitary human rights violations in the Western states but failed to notice that they are systematic in Belarus, Mr Labkovich says.
