We stand behind Ales and the other winning organisations, and support the international community’s efforts to shine a mild on the plight of politics prisoners in Belarus. We all condemn the campaign associated with repression orchestrated by the Lukashenko regime. Mister Chair, the UK welcomes this opportunity to reflect on International Human being Rights Day – tagging 74 years since the re-homing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As we think about the state of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the OSCE region, we are sadly seeing backsliding in other taking part States. Putin’s systematic and repressive war against the freedom of individuals in Russia is detailed in the third Moscow System report of this year; This particular demonstrates how Russia’s actions have had a detrimental effect on the society Putin claims to end up being protecting. The space for civil society and independent mass media in Russia has considerably narrowed, with many human legal rights defenders forced to leave the nation since the outbreak of battle. Opposition activists such as Vladimir Kara-Murza have been charged with high treason for speaking against the war at public events. Most recently, opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced in order to eight and a half years in prison for spreading alleged “disinformation” about the war. Right now, the Russian government’s growth of the “Foreign Agent” Law on 1 December can be another worrying development. Over the past two years, the authorities in Belarus have continued their brutal plus unprecedented crackdown on defenders of democracy in Belarus, including civil society and independent voices. The workout of human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, can be severely repressed, and those attempting to act on those freedoms are systematically detained, mistreated, and subjected to other forms associated with intimidation and harassment. We all condemn the campaign associated with repression orchestrated by the Lukashenko regime. At the Ministerial Council, the UK joined 43 other participating States in a joint statement on human being rights and fundamental freedoms. It was a strong demonstration of our joint commitment to democracy based on the rule of legislation. The UK also has grave concerns about the legal rights of LGBT+ persons in Russia following extensions of Russia’s so-called ‘anti-propaganda law’. We will continue to call out the Russian authorities for producing a climate of worry and intimidation, and restricting the freedom of manifestation of all Russians. This year, we mark Worldwide Human Rights Day contrary to the backdrop of President Putin’s barbaric war against Ukraine. Alongside many OSCE taking part States, the UK continues to emphasize the shameful findings from the Moscow Mechanism reports, which have documented “the magnitude and frequency of the indiscriminate attacks carried out against civilians and civilian objects [. . .] by the Russian equipped forces”. The reports record grave human rights abuses and violations – torture, executions of civilians, unlawful detention, enforced disappearances, rape of women, rape of children, focusing on of homes, schools, hospitals. We cannot condemn this highly enough, and the UK wholly supports efforts to bring these responsible for these atrocities to account. Mr Chair, we are in awe of the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people and tireless work of inspiring Ukrainian human being rights defenders who we met in Warsaw and Łódź. We and the global community will not let Ukraine face these challenges alone. The UK will continue to work together with our international partners to actively call out human rights violations and abuses wherever they occur, working with human rights defenders, city society and the media in order to uphold democracy based on the principle of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms. The number of political criminals is now more than 1, 400. This includes many ordinary Belarusians who protested in 2020. Sentenced in some cases to well over a decade simply for exercising their particular fundamental rights. People like Ales Bialiatski, founder from the Human Rights Organisation Viasna, who faces up to twelve years in prison pertaining to tax charges. Ales received the Nobel Peace Reward this weekend for his work on human rights, together with the now-dissolved Russian company Memorial and the Center regarding Civil Liberties from Kyiv.
