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Only a week after the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Monitor on Belarus tabled a report detailing the deteriorating human rights situation in the former Soviet Union republic, the HRC has voted to halt further monitoring of Belarus and Cuba. The infamous council also decided not to renew the mandate of the man who wrote the report, Romanian law professor and politician Adrian Severin.
The U.N. Human Rights Council yesterday ended permanent investigations of Cuba and Belarus as terms expired for nearly one-third of its 47 member nations.The action came during a 14-hour meeting setting out procedures for the new council, which was formed a year ago to replace the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission.
The council's charter preserves the watchdog's right to appoint special investigators, known as rapporteurs, for countries with poor human rights records.
But delegates yesterday voted to eliminate those investigators for Cuba and Belarus, a move opposed by the United States. Neither had allowed the U.N. rapporteur to visit their countries.
Mr Severin said the HRC’s decision excuses human rights abuses by Belarusian authorities.
The Romanian law expert said President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's authoritarian government will react with triumph to this and victims of repressions will lose "a necessary tool" to defend their rights.
Russia reportedly led the campaign to terminate Mr Severin’s position and grant Belarus its violate-human-rights-free card.
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