Belarus: Serious human rights violations and the next Moscow Mechanism Report - OSCE SHDM II

Belarus: Serious human rights violations and the next Moscow Mechanism Report – OSCE SHDM II

On 24 April 2023, Human Rights House Foundation hosted alongside a pre-event on the human rights situation in Belarus at OSCE SHDM II the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands as well as Belarusian and international CSOs. The event was organised with the financial support of the European Union.

Thirty-eight OSCE participating States invoked the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism on 23 March 2023 to examine “threats to the fulfilment of the provisions of the human dimension posed by human rights violations and abuses in the Republic of Belarus”.

The Moscow Mechanism provides the opportunity for OSCE participating States to send missions of experts to assist in the resolution of a particular question or problem relating to the human dimension of the OSCE.

The Moscow Mechanism was last used in relation to Belarus in September 2020, when it was invoked by 17 OSCE participating States. The resulting report, among other things, helped to pave the way for international accountability mechanisms focused on Belarus, including the United Nations “OHCHR examination of the human rights situation in Belarus” as well as the International Accountability Platform for Belarus.

This event, prior to the start of SHDM 2, focused on:

The human rights situation in Belarus, with a particular focus on the most serious violations that are occurring in the country, including torture-related cases;
Evaluate the accountability process from the perspective of civil society;
Make recommendations on future steps of the OSCE with regards to the human rights situation in Belarus, and in particular to the upcoming Moscow Mechanism report.