Elena Tonkacheva: Miklosh Haraszti’s recommendations should also be addressed to the UN

Belarusan government has long ago had to establish mechanisms through which the solutions of the UN Committee on Human Rights would be carried out; however, it hasn’t done it yet.

The specialists from the Center for Legal Transformation “Lawtrend” once again reminded about this problem to Miklosh Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur to Belarus.

As the “EuroBelarus” information center got to know from Elena Tonkacheva, the head of Lawtrend, Miklosh Haraszti is now preparing a report for the UN General Assembly that will take place in October, 2013.

In this regard, the Center for Legal Transformation directed its stance towards the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur to Belarus and the activity of other UN institutions dealing with the promotion of human rights in Belarus to Miklosh Haraszti.

The decisions of the UN Committee have suddenly become optional

In this document, the Lawtrend experts urged the UN Special Rapporteur to include a number of recommendations to Belarusan government, to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the UN Office in Belarus.

“If we touch upon the recommendation for the government, we pay particular attention to the way in which Belarus deals with the execution of the decisions of the UN Human Rights Council”, said Elena Tonkacheva.

Let us recall you that until today in most cases Belarus has ignored the decisions of the UN Committee for Human Rights, though Belarus recognizes the competence of this body. “Accordingly, the state has long ago had to establish mechanisms through which the solutions of the UN Committee on Human Rights would be carried out”, - the head of Lawtrend explained. – “But, unfortunately, we do not see any positive trends in this direction. Recently we have heard a number of comments from government officials claiming that the decisions of the UN Committee on Human Rights are advisable, though not obligatory. This position is a matter of serious concern as it does not correspond to the international obligations of Belarus”.

Lawtrend believes that the UN Special Rapporteur should pay special attention to this problem. Otherwise, this practice, when the decision made by the UN Committee for Human Rights in favor of the citizens who complained about the actions of the state does not change the situation in Belarus will be continued.

The OHCHR representation as an indicator of good will

Traditionally, in his reports Miklosh Haraszti stressed only the recommendations for the government of Belarus.

“Considering that today it is necessary to use all possible instruments, which have been tried and tested in the course of the UN activity in order to improve the human rights situation in Belarus, we think that a number of recommendations should be addressed to other UN institutions, too”, - Elena Tonkacheva noted.

That is why the Lawtrend representatives suggest Miklosh Haraszti to address the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to start a process of communication with the government of the Republic of Belarus with an intention to open its representative office in Belarus. “We see other countries, where after the opening of an OHCHR representation there were significant improvements in certain areas of human rights”, - Elena Tonkacheva explained the reasons for such a suggestion.

It is worth noting that the presence of an OHCHR office in the country requires the consent of the government. “The opening of such an office requires good will and the state’s transparency”, - admitted the expert. – “But in this case, as long as the OHCHR doesn’t initiate the communication procedure, the Belarusan government, for its part, will be in the mode of ignorance and won’t need to respond to the proposals from the Office. That is why we need to ask OHCHR to start this kind of procedure”.

The UN representation as a platform for a dialogue

Besides, the Center for Legal Transformation believes that a number of recommendations of the Special Rapporteur could be addressed to the UN Office in Belarus.

As one of the major recommendations Elena Tonkacheva highlighted the appeal to the representative body to take over the function of establishing and operating a permanent platform for the civil society and the government to discuss issues of implementing the decisions within the scope of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and other UN treaty arrangements.

“We believe that today there are not enough places and opportunities to conduct systematic dialogue about the recommendations that were given to the Republic of Belarus in the framework of the UN mechanisms”, - said the head of Lawtrend. - “It is necessary to maintain regular meetings between representatives of government agencies, the UN and Belarusan human rights organizations. In this regard the UN Representative office has a unique ability to organize regular meetings, which would be extremely useful when it comes to discussion of the recommendations”.