At the meeting of the 55th session in Geneva on April 4 the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) decided to extend the mandate of Anais Maren, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, for one year.
The Special Rapporteur will present a report on the human rights situation in Belarus to the HRC at its 59th session in the summer of 2025 and to the UN General Assembly at its 80th session next autumn.
The Council also adopted the resolution “The situation of human rights in Belarus” with 24 votes in favor, 6 against and 17 abstentions.
The UN Human Rights Council has decided to urgently establish a group of three independent experts on the human rights situation in Belarus. Its mandate will include conducting investigations and establishing the facts and causes of all alleged human rights violations committed by Belarus since May 1, 2020.
The UN, in particular, called on the Belarusian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release and effectively rehabilitate political prisoners, stop using force against peaceful demonstrators, torture and “forcibly expelling people from the country only for exercising their rights.”
Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Gambia, Ghana, Honduras, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, the Netherlands, Germany, Paraguay, Romania, Montenegro and the United States voted in support of the resolution.
Algeria, Burundi, China, Cuba, Eritrea and Vietnam voted against the adoption of the document.
Abstaining were Bangladesh, Cameroon, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, UAE, Somalia, Sudan and South Africa.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus was established in 2012 and has continued annually since then. Since November 2018 the position has been held by Anais Maren (France).