A/HRC/RES/23/15
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
24 June 2013
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Twenty-third session
Agenda item 4
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council∗
23/15.
Situation of human rights in Belarus
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the
provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on
Human Rights and other applicable human rights instruments,
Recalling all resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, the General
Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in Belarus,
including Council resolutions 17/24 of 17 June 2011 and 20/13 of 5 July 2012, and
deploring the inadequate response by the Government of Belarus to the requests of the
Council made in those resolutions, including the denial of access to the Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in Belarus and other special procedures mandate holders to
the country,
Recalling also Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1 and 5/2 of 18 June 2007,
1.
Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in Belarus;1
2.
Expresses deep concern at continuing violations of human rights in Belarus,
which are of a structural and endemic nature, and also at the systemic and systematic
restrictions on human rights, especially in the case of the freedoms of association, of
assembly, and of opinion and expression, as well as the guarantees of due process and fair
trial, and expresses particular concern at the use of torture and ill-treatment in custody, the
lack of response by the Government to cases of enforced disappearance of political
opponents, violations of labour rights amounting to forced labour, significant gaps in antidiscrimination legislation, the impunity of perpetrators of human rights violations and
abuses, the harassment of civil society organizations, human rights defenders, journalists
∗
1
GE.13-15063
The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of
the Council on its twenty-third session (A/HRC/23/2), chap. I.
A/HRC/23/52.