A/RES/61/175
Concerned that the presidential election of 19 March 2006 was severely
flawed and fell significantly short of the commitments of Belarus to the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to hold a free and fair election,
and that the situation of human rights in Belarus in 2005 was steadily deteriorating,
as documented in the final report of the Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and in
the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, 14
Noting that the Belarusian authorities have decided to hold local elections on
14 January 2007, and expressing its hope that those will be free and fair, in full
respect of international electoral standards,
1.
Expresses deep concern:
(a) About the failure of the Government of Belarus to cooperate fully with
all the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, in particular with the special
rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Belarus, while noting the serious
concern relating to the deterioration of the human rights situation in Belarus
expressed by seven independent human rights experts of the United Nations in a
statement issued on 29 March 2006;
(b) That in spite of detailed recommendations by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe and dialogue between the Government and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe following previous elections,
Belarus again failed to meet its commitments to hold free and fair elections,
including through the arbitrary use of State power against opposition candidates,
routine harassment, the detention and arrest of political and civil society activists,
the obstruction of the access of opposition candidates to State media, the negative
portrayal in the State media of opposition candidates and activists, including human
rights defenders, and the serious shortcomings of the vote count, which lacked
minimum transparency;
(c) About continuing reports of harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention of
up to one thousand persons, including opposition candidates, before and after the
election of 19 March 2006;
(d) About the continuing and expanding criminal prosecutions, lack of due
process and closed political trials of leading opposition figures and human rights
defenders;
(e) About the continuing harassment and detention of Belarusian journalists
covering local opposition demonstrations, and that senior officials of the
Government of Belarus were implicated in the enforced disappearance and/or
summary execution of three political opponents of the incumbent authorities in 1999
and of a journalist in 2000 and in the continuing investigatory cover-up, as
documented in the report adopted in resolution 1371 (2004) of 28 April 2004 by the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; 15
(f) About the decision of the Belarusian authorities to revoke the teaching
licence of the European Humanities University in Minsk and to terminate the lease
of its buildings, forcing the University in Belarus to close down;
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14
15
2
E/CN.4/2006/36.
See Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, document 10062.