Recent developments in Belarus: joint Canada-UK statement
Ambassador Neil Bush speaks about recent developments in Belarus on behalf of Canada and the UK.
Madam Chair,
I am reading this statement on behalf of both Canada and the United Kingdom.
Today is Freedom Day in Belarus – an unofficial holiday to commemorate the declaration of independence by the Belarusian Democratic Republic on 25 March 1918. For many years, the date has been marked by Belarusian opposition figures calling for greater freedoms and democracy in Belarus. This year will be the same.
The citizens of Belarus have been subjected to a pattern of human rights violations prior to, during, and after the presidential election in August 2020. Attacks on their freedoms have been systematic in nature and widespread in scale. Earlier this week the UK and Canada co-sponsored the Human Rights Council resolution that requires the High Commissioner for Human Rights to collect, preserve, and analyse information and evidence to hold perpetrators to account and seek justice for victims.
Canada and the UK have consistently made statements on Belarus in the Permanent Council over the past months. Those statements have focussed on the importance of the OSCE commitments to human rights and fundamental freedoms that Belarus has freely signed up to. We call on the Belarusian authorities to meet these commitments. We have also urged the Belarusian authorities to take up the offer by the previous and current OSCE Chair in Office to facilitate a genuine national dialogue towards a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Madam Chair,
On 5 November, Canada and the UK expressed our support for all the recommendations in Professor Benedek’s independent report under the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism. The report included a number of recommendations to the international community. These included the non-recognition of the election results, and the establishment of an in-depth investigation of human rights violations. The Human Rights Council resolution passed earlier this week brings that investigation closer, as does the establishment, earlier this week, of the International Accountability Platform for Belarus (IAPB), an NGO-led initiative supported by the UK, Canada and 17 other States.
In his report, Professor Benedek made 82 recommendations to the Belarusian authorities, including new Presidential elections, an immediate end to the violence and release of all those illegally detained, an independent oversight mechanism on detention conditions, and an investigation into all allegations of torture. We call again on the Belarusian authorities to implement those recommendations in full. They offer a clear roadmap out of the current political crisis.