Human rights violations in Belarus require an international investigation
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 21 April 2021 (12th sitting) (see Doc. 15256, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights, rapporteur: Ms Alexandra Louis). Text
adopted by the Assembly on 21 April 2021 (12th sitting).See
also Recommendation 2201
(2021).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls
that the peaceful protests against the falsification of the results
of the presidential election in Belarus of 9 August 2020 were brutally
put down by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, with many protesters
being arrested and tortured in detention. A great many leaders of
the citizens’ movement are being prosecuted for crimes which are
vaguely defined but incur long prison sentences, while others have
been forced into exile.
2. In February 2021, a new wave of arrests and prosecutions was
launched against opposition activists who had not yet been detained.
Those prosecuted included human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers,
trade unionists and representatives of the “Coordination Council”,
the political opposition’s flagship body.
3. According to the non-governmental organisation Freedom House,
the number of political prisoners, including human rights defenders,
journalists, activists, representatives of youth organisations and
political parties, has reached 300, with cases having been fabricated
against them; in March 2021 there were attempted suicides by two
political prisoners and three hunger strikes in protest by Igor
Losik, Igor Bantser and Dmitriy Furmanov.
4. The Assembly considers the persons referred to above to be
political prisoners, according to the definition of this term in
Resolution 1900 (2012).
These persons are in administrative or pre-trial detention or serving
prison sentences for merely participating in peaceful protests or
publishing information on those protests and their unjustified repression
by the law-enforcement agencies.
5. The Assembly notes that the perpetrators of these serious
and repeated human rights violations, committed on a massive scale
when repressing the protests against the falsification of the presidential
election results, are not being prosecuted at national level, despite
the fact that torture and inhuman or degrading treatment are also
crimes in Belarusian law. Where international anti-torture instruments
are concerned, Belarus is not a contracting party to the European
Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (ETS No. 126) or to the Optional Protocol
to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) or to the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court.
6. The Assembly stresses that combating impunity for the perpetrators
of serious human rights violations is of the utmost importance,
out of principle and also to deter others from perpetrating human
rights violations, reiterating its
Resolutions 2252 (2019),
2157 (2017),
2134 (2016) and
1966 (2014). It
notes that the criminal legislation of several Council of Europe
member States provides for “universal jurisdiction” for their courts
for certain crimes of a particularly serious nature, including acts
of torture, even committed abroad, by foreign nationals and against
foreign nationals. It also notes that a number of States have passed
“Magnitsky laws”, under which targeted sanctions may be imposed
on perpetrators of serious human rights violations.
7. The Assembly welcomes the initiative taken by human rights
activists in Belarus who have successfully compiled a substantial
body of evidence of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment and
identified presumed perpetrators.
8. It welcomes the initiative launched by the European Parliament
in collaboration with other international stakeholders, in the spirit
of the follow-up to the recommendations of the Moscow Mechanism
of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE),
setting up the International Accountability Platform for Belarus,
an advisory platform tasked with gathering evidence of serious human
rights violations in Belarus and assessing it with a view to making
it available to the competent authorities of member States, so that
they can prosecute Belarusian nationals having perpetrated these
crimes, committed in Belarus against Belarusian victims. The Assembly
also supports the creation of an ad hoc working group within the
Council of Europe tasked with monitoring the human rights situation
in Belarus and contributing to the aforementioned International
Accountability Platform for Belarus.
9. The Assembly considers that the information gathered by human
rights activists in Belarus and the evidence assessed by the platform
launched within the European Parliament may be able to serve as
a foundation for criminal proceedings lodged on the basis of universal
jurisdiction and for the imposing of targeted sanctions under “Magnitsky
laws”.
10. It welcomes the prosecutions already initiated by Lithuanian
courts on the basis of universal jurisdiction and the commitment
of some member States, notably the Baltic countries, Poland and
Ukraine, which have taken in victims of repression forced into exile
and support civil society in Belarus.
11. The Assembly calls upon:
11.1 the
Belarusian authorities to:
11.1.1 engage in dialogue with
the opposition as the only way to put an end to the violence and human
rights violations and to hold new democratic elections this year
to resolve the political crisis;
11.1.2 release all political prisoners without delay;
11.1.3 immediately put a stop to all acts of torture or inhuman
and degrading treatment committed against opponents of the regime,
whether in public, citizens’ homes or any places of detention;
11.1.4 prosecute all the perpetrators of such acts in accordance
with the Belarusian Criminal Code;
11.1.5 co-operate with the European Commission for Democracy
through Law (Venice Commission) with a view to reforming the Belarusian
Criminal Code in order to decriminalise the exercise of freedom
of expression, assembly and association;
11.1.6 sign and ratify the United Nations Optional Protocol to
the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) and the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court and ask the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to
invite their country to accede to the European Convention for the
Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;
11.1.7 take all necessary measures to ensure the right to a fair
trial, including access to a lawyer;
11.1.8 cease all restrictions on media freedom and freedom of
assembly;
11.1.9 implement all recommendations of the Venice Commission
in its opinion of 20 March 2021 on the compatibility with European
standards of certain criminal law provisions used to prosecute peaceful
demonstrators and members of the “Coordination Council”;
11.1.10 abolish the death penalty as soon as possible, starting
with a moratorium;
11.2 the member States of the Council of Europe to:
11.2.1 explore mechanisms for facilitating dialogue between the
authorities and the opposition to resolve the political crisis;
11.2.2 demand, in their dealings with the Belarusian authorities,
at all levels, the immediate release of all political prisoners
and an end to the campaign of repression against protesters and their
families and make any economic, financial and political co-operation
subject to these conditions;
11.2.3 support the ongoing efforts at international level to
call to account the perpetrators of serious human rights violations
committed in Belarus by State officials who enjoy impunity, including
by exercising the universal jurisdiction provided for in their criminal
legislation or, where applicable, by introducing this possibility
into their legislation;
11.2.4 continue to take in the victims of repression who have
been forced into political exile and support Belarusian civil society,
including political prisoners’ families, and provide study grants for
Belarusian students who have been expelled from their university
faculties;
11.2.5 use their “Magnitsky laws”, which make it possible to
impose targeted sanctions on perpetrators of human rights violations
and also presumed perpetrators of such violations in Belarus, and
pass such laws where necessary;
11.3 the competent institutions of the European Union to:
11.3.1 demand, in their dealings with Belarus at all levels,
the immediate release of all political prisoners and an end to the
campaign of repression against protesters and their families, and make
any economic and financial co-operation subject to these conditions;
11.3.2 strengthen their co-operation with Belarusian civil society,
give support to political prisoners’ families and provide study
grants for Belarusian students who have been expelled from their
university faculties;
11.3.3 support the initiative developed within the European Parliament
aimed at creating a co-ordination platform bringing together efforts
at international level to combat impunity for the perpetrators of
human rights violations in Belarus, by gathering, analysing and
assessing relevant information and tip-offs with a view to these
being used to help national law-enforcement authorities exercise
universal jurisdiction and to impose targeted sanctions via the
“Magnitsky mechanisms” that exist or are to be created; and strengthen
personalised sanctions against those perpetrating human rights violations,
including police, prosecutors and judges.
