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With regard to Belarus, 35 OSCE participating States, including Ukraine, have activated the so-called Vienna Mechanism of the Organization in view of the serious human rights violations in the Republic of Belarus.
This is reported by UA with reference to Ukrinform.
A joint letter on behalf of the delegations of 35 countries addressed to the Belarusian permanent representative to the OSCE was distributed on Thursday during a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
The letter reminds that on September 17, 2020, 17 OSCE participating States activated the so-called Moscow OSCE mechanism in order to establish an expert mission to study reports of human rights violations before, during and after the presidential elections in Belarus on August 9, 2020. In addition to establishing and reporting on the facts, this mission was also called upon to provide recommendations and advice.
The relevant independent report, authored by the rapporteur, Austrian Professor Wolfgang Benedek, was formally presented to the OSCE Permanent Council on 5 November 2020. It stated that the elections in Belarus were neither free nor fair, and that the security forces had committed “massive and systematic” violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The report also contained a number of recommendations to the Belarusian authorities, all member states and the international community in general.
In a joint letter, delegations from 35 countries noted that since the publication of the report under the Moscow Mechanism, “the situation in Belarus has deteriorated” and the authorities in Minsk have not responded to numerous calls to implement the report’s recommendations. national dialogue in Belarus, as well as rejected the proposal of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to promote national dialogue in Belarus.
“Instead of seeing a move towards a resolution of the crisis in Belarus, the situation has worsened and the Belarusian authorities’ response has continued to be inadequate. Therefore, in response to the Belarusian authorities’ failure to respond satisfactorily to the 5 November 2020 Moscow Mechanism report, and considering our additional concerns over ongoing developments in the last 12 months, our countries are today invoking the Vienna (Human Dimension) Mechanism and Belarus’ commitments under that Mechanism” – is said in the letter.
The 35 OSCE participating states want official Minsk, within the framework of the “Vienna Mechanism”, to provide meaningful answers to the issues raised in the letter. Under the procedure, such responses must be provided in writing within 10 days.
The joint letter, read by the head of the British mission Neil Bush during the OSCE Permanent Council, was signed by: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Northern Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Ukraine.
To remind, the EU is preparing a fifth package of sanctions against Belarus.
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