Statement during the interactive dialogue on the OHCHR report on Belarus (17.3.2022)

"Mr. President,
Greece aligns with the EU statement and thanks the High Commissioner for her report.

We express our concern at the reported scale and patterns of human rights violations and their widespread and systematic nature. We are alarmed by the evidence that they were part of an official policy, collectively executed by multiple State organs.

The response of the authorities to the protests between August ninth and fourteenth 2020 was marked by unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, arrests, detention, and torture or ill-treatment, including rape and sexual and gender-based violence. The report makes clear that this response aimed to suppress criticism and dissent of governmental policies, and to curtail the exercise of a range of fundamental rights and freedoms.

Judging from the current situation in Belarus, it is obvious that these violations were not a temporary issue. The authorities still hold almost eleven hundred political prisoners. Dissenting voices have been silenced, political opposition, independent media and free civil space eradicated. Anti-war protesters are systematically detained. The utter lack of any efforts towards accountability, proves that the authorities are responsible for these violations.

In conclusion, Mr President, we strongly condemn the involvement of Belarus in Russia's unprovoked and unlawful military aggression against Ukraine and call on the Belarussian authorities to abide by their international obligations.

I thank you"