News

On 4 December, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, held an interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in Belarus following the presidential elections of 9 August. The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius, who spoke at an online session, urged the international community to continue to participate fully addressing serious human rights violations in Belarus.

“Although deep concerns over the human rights situation in Belarus were voiced already during the 45th regular session of the Human Rights Council in September, the repression against peaceful protesters, unlawful arrests of journalists, arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, as well as violence faced by civil society groups and political opponents have only intensified,” Linkevičius said.

Lithuania once again urged Belarus to end human rights abuses and conduct urgent, thorough and independent investigations into the death of Roman Bondarenko and the protest-related deaths of other Belarusian civilians, as well as tonbring those responsible to justice. In addition, the Belarusian authorities were repeatedly called upon to cooperate with the UN human rights mechanisms.

The human rights situation in Belarus will also be discussed during the 46th session of the Human Rights Council (22 February to 19 March 2021).

 Lithuania currently works as an observer and campaigns for the Human Rights Council membership for the term 2022-2024.