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GENEVA (9 March 2022) – The basic human rights of tens of thousands of people in Belarus have been violated and the lives of countless others have been negatively affected by the government’s continued crackdown on opponents, civil society, journalists and lawyers, yet to see the perpetrators held accountable, according to a report released today by the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Report details findings of OHCHR review of human rights situation in Belarusmandated by the UN Human Rights Council. This review covered the period leading up to the August 9, 2020 elections and their aftermath through December 31, 2021, drawing on 145 first-hand interviews, as well as analysis of a wide range of information and proofs.

When the incumbent president declared his electoral victory on August 9, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to express their opposition peacefully, meeting “massive and violent repression”, the report said, with arrests and detentions reaching a scale unprecedented in Belarus.

From testimony provided during the OHCHR review, it appears that the arrests were largely random, with security forces pursuing and overpowering anyone within range. Additionally, men without badges and wearing balaclavas participated in the forced dispersal of the protests, “creating an atmosphere of fear and anarchy”, the report said. The widespread use of unnecessary and disproportionate force has repeatedly violated people’s rights, including freedom of expression, assembly and association.

In total, between May 2020 and May 2021, at least 37,000 people were detained, many of whom were placed in administrative detention for up to 15 days. Of this total, some 13,500 people were arbitrarily arrested and detained between 9 and 14 August alone.

Information gathered by the review indicates that torture and ill-treatment were widespread and systematic, with individuals being targeted for their real or perceived opposition to the government or election results. Many victims were afraid to file a complaint, while those who did saw their cases rejected.

At the end of 2021, 969 people were in prison on what the OHCHR review had reasonable grounds to believe were politically motivated charges, with several people having been sentenced to terms of 10 years or more. As of March 4, 2022, that number had risen to 1,084.

After the elections, the government continued to harass those who sought to exercise their rights. In September 2020, authorities began filing complaints against opposition figures, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and ordinary citizens, a trend that continued throughout 2021, the government having also adopted a series of legislative amendments which further restricted the exercise of fundamental freedoms.

Civil society and human rights organizations, as well as independent media, continued to be targeted. By October, 270 NGOs had been closed, and by the end of the year, 32 journalists had been detained and 13 media declared “extremist”.

Lawyers who defended dissidents, denounced human rights violations or brought cases before UN human rights mechanisms were detained, intimidated, subject to disciplinary sanctions or even disbarred. By November 2021, 36 lawyers had lost their license.

Among its findings, the OHCHR review found that individuals were targeted in a consistent pattern of unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, arrests, detentions – including incommunicado detention – torture or ill-treatment, rape and sexual and gender-based violence and systematic denial of the right to due process and a fair trial.

The report also concludes that the scale and characteristics of the violations identified, their widespread and systematic nature, and the evidence of official policy, knowledge and direction of their collective execution by multiple organs of the state require assessment. further investigation of available evidence from the perspective of applicable laws. international criminal law. This is particularly the case for the massive arbitrary detentions from August 9 to 14, 2020.

Furthermore, the failure to effectively investigate human rights violations contravenes Belarus’ obligations under international human rights law. Besides the lack of investigations, “there was an active policy to protect perpetrators and prevent accountability, reflected in the level of retaliation, intimidation of victims and witnesses, attacks on lawyers and human rights defenders of man,” the report said.

“The review not only lays bare the violations inflicted on people trying to exercise their basic human rights, but also highlights the inability of victims to access justice,” said the UN High Commissioner. human rights, Michelle Bachelet.

“The authorities’ extensive and sustained actions to crush dissent and suppress civil society, independent media and opposition groups, while protecting perpetrators, point to a situation of total impunity in Belarus,” Bachelet said.

The report makes detailed recommendations to Belarus and other states to work towards accountability through available judicial processes for serious violations of international human rights law in Belarus.

ENDS

Read the full report here

For more information and media requests, please contact:

Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org

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