A/HRC/RES/53/19
2.
Expresses deep concern about the continuing systematic violations of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus, in particular the ongoing oppressive restrictions
on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression, both online and
offline, resulting in the harassment, intimidation, repression and forced exile of civil society
and independent media, and the continuously increasing number of arbitrary detentions and
arrests, including those involving incommunicado detention, of individuals on politically
motivated grounds or for exercising their human rights, including fundamental freedoms of
journalists and other media workers, environmental and human rights defenders, among them
women human rights defenders, medical workers, lawyers, cultural workers, teachers,
students, persons belonging to national minorities, individuals expressing dissenting
opinions, members of trade unions and strike committees, and other members of civil society;
3.
Strongly condemns the widespread and systematic violations of international
human rights law reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights2 and
the Special Rapporteur,3 including arbitrary deprivation of the right to life and to liberty, and
the continued systematic and widespread torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment and punishment of and sexual and gender-based violence against individuals,
including children and youth, detained and arrested in Belarus by the State authorities,
inhumane detention conditions and the denial of timely and adequate medical services and
legal assistance in detention centres and prisons, as well as the denial of the right to a fair
trial, and the failure of the Belarusian authorities to conduct prompt, effective, thorough,
transparent and impartial investigations into all the aforementioned human rights violations,
and notes with grave concern that, according to the High Commissioner, some of those
violations may amount to crimes against humanity when such acts are committed as part of
a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge
of the attack;4
4.
Expresses deep concern about the reported repression of persons exercising
their right to freedom of expression and opinion by speaking out against the aggression by
the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the support of Belarus for that aggression, and at
the repression of individuals’ freedom to seek, receive and impart information, including
regarding the State’s use of territory and infrastructure to enable the aggression by the
Russian Federation, and urges the Belarusian authorities to ensure an environment conducive
to the functioning of genuinely independent media, both online and offline, including
unhindered access to an open, interoperable, reliable and secure Internet;
5.
Deplores the lack of independence of the judiciary and other violations of fair
trial rights that have led to unjust criminal prosecution, conviction and sentencing of human
rights defenders in Belarus for their legitimate human rights work, as well as the intimidation
and disbarment of independent lawyers for providing services to the political opposition,
human rights defenders and/or others arrested for politically motivated reasons;
6.
Notes with deep concern the increasingly restrictive legal framework that
further restricts the right to freedoms of opinion and expression and of peaceful assembly,
online and offline, in violation of international human rights law or that leads to violations of
other human rights, including the right to nationality and the right to own property, and
especially targeting pro-democracy activists, peaceful protesters against the aggression by
the Russian Federation against Ukraine, civil society actors, environmental and human rights
defenders, including women human rights defenders, lawyers, independent media, journalists
and other media workers, but also other individuals, including children, in particular the
recent amendments to the Law on Mass Gatherings, the Law on Mass Media, the Law on
Countering Extremism and the Law on the Bar and Legal Advocacy, the amendments to the
Criminal Code, adopted in May and December 2021, criminalizing engagement in the
activities of dissolved civil society entities or involvement in activities of non-registered
organizations, the new Code of Administrative Offences adopted in January 2022, the
amendments to the Criminal Code adopted in May 2022 and March 2023 expanding the use
of the death penalty with the intent of repressing further the exercise of human rights in
2
3
4
2
See A/HRC/52/68.
See A/HRC/47/49.
A/HRC/52/68, para. 54.