Belarus, Russia to present joint report on human rights in Minsk, Vienna, Geneva

The joint report of the Foreign Affairs Ministries of Belarus and Russia on the human rights situation in selected countries will be presented in Minsk, Vienna and Geneva, official representative of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a briefing, BelTA has learned.

“The Foreign Affairs Ministries of Russia and Belarus have prepared the third joint report on the human rights situation in selected countries. The document continues the annual work of the foreign affairs ministries of the two states and aims to draw the attention of the international community to real threats in this area. The report will be presented at the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk, at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna, and on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 30 June, 7 July and 9 July,” Maria Zakharova said.

According to her, the information collected in the report highlights the gravest problems of our time: the spread of ideologies that justify inequality. “In practice, this leads to rising racism, discrimination, and intolerance. And the danger lies in the fact that these ideologies and methods are used by the West to preserve its, so to speak, slipping dominance. They are trying to regain it at any cost: first through direct colonial exploitation, now through neo-colonial practices. They want to extend those 500 years even further. The so-called threat, in the eyes of the West, is above all the independence, sovereignty, and self-reliance of countries that, through their history, their labor, and their struggle, have earned the right to be independent and sovereign,” the official representative noted.

“Confrontation is being fueled, pressure on sovereign states is intensifying, up to direct forceful interference and sometimes even the abduction of legitimate leaders. Such cynical practices can be observed in Ukraine, the Middle East, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Latin America. The West, having discredited its own development model, including its security model, is incapable of fair competition and is sinking ever deeper into the politicization of international relations. These irresponsible, destructive actions are aimed at dismantling the post-war system of international relations and, in essence, represent a return to pre‑state chaos, the destruction of humanism, genuine humanism, and the preparation of a new so-called morality, updated to cut away everything unnecessary and leave only what is convenient, a morality that will literally legitimize inequality and the right to eliminate the undesirable. Such approaches must be met with firm resistance from the entire international community. Only equal cooperation among all states can eradicate colonialism and prevent individual countries from bending international law to their will or destroying it entirely,” Maria Zakharova emphasized.

“This report, unlike the West’s so-called studies, is not moralizing. It is based on materials from NGOs and recommendations from UN human rights mechanisms, summarizing actual violations. And the moral assessment is left to the readers themselves,” the spokesperson said.