Report on the serious threat to the OSCE human dimension in Belarus since 5 November 2020

Rapport préparé par :

Hervé Ascensio, Professeur de droit public à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, IREDIES

 

Assistantes :

Coralie Klipfel, docteure en droit public de l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Rosanne Craveia, doctorante en droit public à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, IREDIES

 

Moscow Mechanism expert report to OSCE Permanent Council on Belarus, 11 may 2023

Today the OSCE Moscow Mechanism rapporteur Professor Hervé Ascensio presented his findings to the OSCE Permanent Council, collected in his report entitled ‘Report on the serious threat to the OSCE human dimension in Belarus since 5 November 2020’.

Ascensio was appointed rapporteur by the 38 participating States that invoked OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism on 23 March 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 Mechanism, agreed by consensus by all OSCE participating States, allows for an investigation to be launched without consensus and independently of the OSCE Chairpersonship, institutions and decision-making bodies if one State, supported by at least nine others, "considers that a particularly serious threat to the fulfilment of the provisions of the [OSCE] human dimension has arisen in another participating State".

The Permanent Council is one of the OSCE’s main decision-making bodies, and convenes each week in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and make decisions on future activities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Recommendations

I. Introduction

A. Invocation of the Moscow Mechanism

B. Applicable International Norms and Standards

C. Mandate

D. Methodology

II. Policies of the Belarus Government

A. Legislative Amendments and Constitutional Reform

B. Politically Motivated Repression

III. Actions of the Belarus Government: Alleged Violations of Human Rights

A. Political Rights and Democratic Process

B. Freedoms of Assembly and Association

C. Freedom of Expression and Right of Access to Information

D. Rights to Liberty and Security

E. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

F. Fair Trial

G. Impunity and Lack of Effective Remedies

Annexes:

1/ Letter addressed by the Rapporteur to His Excellency Ambassador Andrei Dapkiunas, representative of Belarus to the OSCE, on 5 April 2023

2/ Chronology