On 11 July in New York, a delegation of the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (Kristina Rikhter, Anastasiya Kostyugova, Valery Kavaleuski) presented an alternative report on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Belarus to the diplomatic corps at the UN. On July 12, representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are going to present the Voluntary National Review (VNR).
This is not the first time the regime uses the UN platform to tell how Belarus successfully implements the SDGs and international commitments, and how only sanctions hold back its development. Meanwhile, the alternative independent review prepared by civil society and the Tsikhanouskaya’s Office reflects the real situation in the country and conveys the main idea: the core reason holding back the development of Belarus is the systematic and unprecedented violation of human rights, which makes it impossible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The presence of the Office team and reporting to the UN is important in order to prevent the regime from invoking its international obligations in an attempt to avoid accountability for human rights violations, as well as to prevent it from receiving funding for the SDGs that would be used for strengthening the dictatorship.
