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Opposition Countries Fail to Block UN Debate on Belarus Human Rights

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA - Disruptive tactics by Belarus, Russia, China and Venezuela
   have failed to derail a special debate on the human rights situation in
   Belarus from taking place at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

   The debate began with a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human
   Rights, which described the violent crackdowns by Belarusian security
   forces against thousands of peaceful demonstrators following the
   country's disputed presidential election.

   However, it was the intervention of the U.N. special rapporteur on the
   human rights situation in Belarus that provoked a firestorm of protests
   from Belarus and its supporters. They said only representatives of
   states could speak at a special debate and that others, including the
   human rights chief and the special rapporteur, must be excluded.

   The Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, accused
   the council of violating procedural rules.

   "In this case, we once again repeat our request and the request of
   other states to cease the dialogue with the special rapporteur, which
   is not provided for by the format for urgent debates with states,"
   Gatilov said.

   President of the U.N. Human Rights Council Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger
   rejected the assertion.

   "We are following exactly the procedure we have always had in the case
   of urgent debates. And, this is the sixth in the line where we start
   with the high commissioner and then a limited number of speakers, who
   are not necessarily on behalf of states. We have done that before and
   that is what we are doing today," Tichy-Fisslberger said.

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