EU: some of human rights violations in Belarus may amount to crimes against humanity

The EU remains “gravely concerned” by the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus and strongly condemn the ongoing gross, systematic and widespread human rights violations, the EU said at the United Nations General Assembly 80th Session Third Committee Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muiznieks. The dialogue took place on 27 October, in New York.

The EU has also expressed its concern at the closed civic space, including the systematic dismantling of civil society and transnational repression, and said that some of the human rights violations in Belarus may amount to crimes against humanity.

“Reports of arbitrary detention, torture and forced labour in detention facilities are alarming. The EU urges the Belarusian authorities to abolish the death penalty, and as a first step, to introduce a moratorium,” the statement said. 

According to the EU, new arrests and re-arrests continue and many people remain arbitrarily detained. “We continue to urge for the immediate and unconditional release and effective rehabilitation of all political prisoners, and stress the obligation to uphold their rights,” the statement said.

The EU also urged the Belarusian authorities to stop their involvement in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, to immediately ensure the safe return to Ukraine of all unlawfully deported Ukrainian children, and to halt the instrumentalisation of migrants for political purposes, in complicity with Russia.

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