Palais des Nations in Geneva. UN Independent Experts on Belarus: “Results of Presidential Elections Likely to Lead to Continued Human Rights Violations” Human Rights
The UN Group of Independent Experts on Belarus has expressed “deep concern about the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko and the possible impact this may have on the already dire human rights situation in Belarus.” The authors of a statement released on Wednesday regretted that the Belarusian authorities did not invite international independent observers to the elections and “failed to hold genuine democratic elections.”
“The same thing happened during the 2020 presidential elections,” the UN experts believe. “Since then, real and perceived opposition figures have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured, and denied fair trial. Some of these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.”
According to them, the human rights violations recorded to date “are clearly part of the government’s strategy to suppress dissent, including any form of freedom of expression and association.”
The authors of the statement believe that the large-scale repression has demonstrated its effectiveness. With hundreds of thousands of Belarusians having gone into exile abroad in recent years and more than 1,200 political prisoners remaining in prison, there are no candidates left who could pose a genuine opposition to the current ruler, they write.
With President Alexander Lukashenko set to remain in power for another five years, the Group has, as the statement says, “well-founded concerns that repression and human rights violations will continue.” The Group of Independent Experts will present its first report to the Human Rights Council in March, focusing on violations identified by the experts “committed in 2023 and 2024, including in the months preceding the presidential elections.”
The Group of Independent Experts on the situation of human rights in Belarus was established by the Human Rights Council on 4 April 2024 to investigate and establish the facts, circumstances and root causes of all alleged human rights violations and abuses committed in Belarus since 1 May 2020, including their gender and age dimensions and their impact on victims and survivors.