FIDH

Press Release
[EXCLUSIVE] Facebook Conversation between the dictator Lukashenko
and other Heads of State
Paris, Geneva, 24 May 2016 On 30 June 2016, the members of the United Nations (UN) Human
Rights Council will vote for or against the renewal of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on
human rights in Belarus. On this occasion, FIDH will publish on social networks a fictional
conversation between the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and several Heads of
State which have not yet made their position on this vote public.
Photo vido
This video leads to a web page specially created for the occasion : Act4Belarus.org
This site, available in French, English and Russian, enables web users to act by calling on, directly
through Twitter, countries still hesitating (Cte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria,
United Kingdom, etc.) so that they favor a renewal of the Rapporteur's mandate.
Photo site ou Twitter
Despite cosmetic measures, the nature of the nearly 22 year-old regime has not changed.
Belarussian civil society is still under pressure. We are constantly monitored, provoqued.
declared Ales Bialiatski, FIDH Vice President and President of Human Rights Center VIASNA, who
spent close to three years in the jails of Belarus for his human rights activities. The Special
Rapporteur is the only international mandate left for us to surveil and denounce the human
rights situation in the country. It must be renewed.
In order to reveal the amount of human rights violations committed today in the country, FIDH
presents on Act4Belarus.org 9 interviews of Belarussian activists who have witnessed a great deal,
of which : Alena Tonkacheva (Chairman of the Board of the Legal Transformation Center), Andrei
Bastunets (Belarusian Association of Journalists), Raisa Mikhailouskaya (Belarusian
Documentation Center), Valiantsin Stefanovic (Human Rights Center "Viasna"), Natalya
Mankouskaya (Human Rights Center Identity). They allude to procuppying situations and rights
flouted systematically : freedom of the media and of expression, freedom of association, LGBTI
rights, death penalty, political prisoners, etc.
The current Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, Mikls Haraszti, also confided in
FIDH in a video interview : To be clear, Belarus is the only country in Europe who applies
the death penalty, (...), the only country in Europe where 70% of the economy is directly
under the control of the President, the only country in Europe where the President has a
total control on society and the only country in Europe where there hasn't been any
opposition in the parliament in 20 years.
***
Created in 2012, the Special Rapporteur on the human right situation in Belarus is mandated to :
surveil the human right situation in country and make recommendations to improve it;
help to put in place the recommendations from the Human Rights Council High
Commissioner's report;
assist the government of Belarus in addressing its human rights obligations;
support and advise civil society;
search for, examine, and act on information from actors on the human rights situation in
Belarus ;

 report on the situation annually to the Human Rights Council and to the UN General
Assembly.