On November 4, Neil Bush, Head of the United Kingdom’s Delegation to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, delivered a statement on behalf of 35 OSCE states to invoke the Vienna Mechanism in relation to serious human rights violations in Belarus.
The Vienna Mechanism, adopted at the Vienna follow-up meeting in 1989, provides for the exchange of information on questions relating to the human dimension.
Since the publication of the Moscow Mechanism report almost a year ago, the situation in Belarus has deteriorated, the diplomat stresses. According to him, instead of seeing a move towards a resolution of the crisis in Belarus, the situation has worsened and the Belarusian authorities’ response has continued to be inadequate.
“Therefore, in response to the Belarusian authorities’ failure to respond satisfactorily to the 5 November 2020 Moscow Mechanism report, and considering our additional concerns over ongoing developments in the last 12 months, our countries are today invoking the Vienna (Human Dimension) Mechanism and Belarus’ commitments under that Mechanism,” the statement reads.
Among other things, the 35 OSCE states are concerned about freedom of peaceful assembly and media freedom in Belarus; continued arbitrary or unjust arrests or detention; targeting of opposition figures; cases of torture; fostering irregular migration by the Belarusian authorities.
In accordance with Belarus’ OSCE commitments under the Vienna (Human Dimension) Mechanism, the signers requested ‘concrete and substantial responses’ to the following:
The statement was signed by representatives of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and the United States. The above mentioned OSCE participating states expect to receive information in response to these serious concerns in writing within 10 days.
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