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UN warns of ‘unprecedented dimension’ of human rights situation in Belarus

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The United Nations’ rights chief warned on Thursday that a “human rights crisis of unprecedented dimension” was occurring in Belarus.

High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called on the government to release detainees and to conduct “thorough, effective, credible and transparent investigations” on the matter.

As of February 9, 246 people had been sentenced to prison terms on allegedly politically-motivated charges, Bachelet said.

Belarus this week rejected western countries’ accusations of human rights violations.

Minsk’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Yury Ambrazevich, on Thursday criticised a human rights report by Bachelet’s office as “highly subjective and simplistic of its views of events in our country.”

In power since 1994, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has launched a violent crackdown on protests that has triggered new western sanctions on Minsk but garnered support from Russia.

More than 33 000 people have been detained in Belarus since August 2020, according to several human rights groups.

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