The statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus says that the adoption by the UN Human Rights Council of a resolution on the mandate extension of the special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus for a year is a sign of double standards. I think that getting acquainted with the statement will be useful for readers of the site.

I. Kotlyar,
Professor,
Chairman of the Board
of the Belarusian section of the ISHR

Belarus UNHRC slider

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus believes that the adoption by the UN Human Rights Council of a resolution on the extension of the mandate of the special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus for one year is another example of double standards that are imposed when considering the topic of human rights in various countries of the world.
“It is imposed, because a frank minority voted for the anti-Belarusian resolution – only 18 of the Council’s member-states out of 47,” said MFA spokesman Dmitry Mironchik.
“The position of Belarus remains the same – we do not recognize the country resolutions and the special rapporteurs mandated by them. We are sure that the funds spent for their maintenance (and the amount is estimated at millions of dollars) could make an effective contribution to overcoming real human rights challenges in those countries that really need that,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Mironchik recalled that Belarus closely cooperates with the UN Human Rights Council within the universal periodic review procedure.
“We are actively interacting with human rights treaty bodies and we belong to a group of 33 countries that do not have “debts” for reporting to them. In addition to that, last year Belarus adopted the National Human Rights Plan and consistently implements it in direct contact with the agencies of the UN system. This concrete and mutually beneficial interaction will be continued by us irrespective of the politicized decision of the HRC for Belarus,” the ministry’s spokesman said.
To recall, on June 23 the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) extended for a year the mandate of the special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus. 18 countries voted for the adoption of this decision in Geneva, 8 – against, 21 – abstained. The post of special rapporteur from 2012 is taken by Hungarian human rights activist Miklós Haraszti. Belarus traditionally does not recognize the mandate of the special rapporteur and refuses to cooperate with him.
In the resolution, the HRC expressed concern about the human rights situation in Belarus, mentioned reports of torture in prisons, “continuing repression of human rights defenders and civil society organizations”, arrests of journalists in March 2017.

News source: https://news.tut.by/economics/548645.html

Image source: http://spring96.org/files/images/sources/un_hrc-2017.jpg