U.N. rights body approves review of abuse claims
GENEVA — The U.N.’s top human rights body on Friday passed a resolution backed by the European Union seeking quick and enhanced scrutiny of alleged violations in Belarus by authorities under President Alexander Lukashenko, after rejecting efforts to silence speakers and weaken the text.
The Human Rights Council voted 232 with 22 abstentions on the resolution that calls on the U.N. human rights chief to look into the situation of rights in the former Soviet republic and report back by yearend. The 47member body rejected 17 amendments that had sought to alter the language.
The vote followed a dramatic “urgent debate” in which Belarus and backers including
China, Russia and Venezuela sought to muzzle speakers like Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who placed second to Lukashenko in the country’s disputed presidential election last month.
The four countries had, in essence, argued a breach of procedural rules by letting her and others speak. Council president Elisabeth TichyFisslberger, the Austrian ambassador in Geneva, allowed speakers to continue decrying a string of alleged rights violations in Belarus.
“The council’s consideration of the recent events in Belarus is timely,” U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in remarks delivered by her deputy.
“We are witnessing thousands of arrests. Hundreds of reports of torture and other illtreatment, including sexual violence and the reported torture of children,” Bachelet’s statement said, referring to a police crackdown on postelection protests plus troubles from a decade ago.
In a dramatic showdown at the normally staid council, Belarus’ ambassador, Yury Ambrazevich, took the floor to insist that allowing U.N. human rights advocates and other speakers to address the council violated the rules. The council president overrode the objections.
Ambrazevich broke in briefly seconds after Tsikhanouskaya said in a video message that peaceful protesters were being deliberately beaten and raped in Belarus while some “have been found dead.”
“We request that the intervention by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya be stopped,” the Belarusian ambassador said. Council president TichyFisslberger rejected the appeal.
The autocratic Lukashenko, who has ruled the exSoviet republic for 26 years, was declared the winner, but opposition activists have challenged the election as rigged.