During its 55th session, the UN Human Rights Council adopted an important resolution aimed at strengthening accountability mechanisms for human rights violations in Belarus. The document establishes a special group consisting of three independent experts and extends the mandate of the special rapporteur on Belarus for one year. These measures are intended to investigate and document violations committed by the Lukashenka regime and develop recommendations to stop them.
The group will investigate serious and ongoing human rights violations, collect evidence of the regime’s crimes, and identify perpetrators based on independent investigations by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The resolution is a response to the worsening human rights crisis in Belarus, where many remain behind bars on politically motivated charges, facing harsh treatment and being kept incommunicado. Last year, the Lukashenka regime formally deprived victims of human rights violations of the right to submit complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Legal Affairs, Kristina Rikhter, emphasizes the importance of the document for holding the regime accountable:
“The resolution itself is not unique – similar decisions on Belarus have already been made by the UN Human Rights Council before. But in this case, we should emphasize the content. The special group established by the UN, in addition to collecting evidence, has been given a mandate to investigate. This is actually a much stronger mechanism that contributes to holding representatives of the regime accountable for their crimes.
I should stress that we have been both closely monitoring the situation and actively advocating for the decision together with other Belarusian human rights organizations. Therefore, we welcome the fact that our voice was heard by the majority of the UN Human Rights Council”.
