The conference is attended by delegations of 57 OSCE countries, its structures and partners, civil society and international organizations, including Belarusian human rights defenders.

On September 28, the crisis with human rights in Belarus was discussed at the plenary session.

"Viasny" human rights defender

Paval Sapelka

, who also takes part in the Conference, notes the importance of such participation for Belarusian society.

This makes it possible to draw attention to the deterioration of the human rights situation in Belarus and to promote a discussion between civil society and representatives of the OSCE participating states about possible next steps to ensure accountability of the guilty and justice for the victims.

Human rights defender, expert of the Lawtrend organization

Olga Smalyanka

, who spoke at the OSCE plenary session on Belarus "Internal and Transnational Repressions", reported to the participants the situation of deterioration of human rights in Belarus and said that repressions in the country continue to this day:

"Behind every violation of human rights in Belarus, there are specific people, the destinies of specific people are behind it.

People are in prison only because they somehow express their disapproval of the existing regime.

For example, just because they published some materials on Facebook.

According to the most modest estimates, more than 250,000 Belarusians were forced to flee the country.

And this number is actually higher, because there are no official statistics on how many Belarusians are forced to leave the country due to mass repressions.

Belarusian human rights defenders recorded many facts of inhumane treatment and torture in places of deprivation of liberty.

Bags are put on people's heads, people are tortured, they are interrogated at night, people are killed.

And there are many such facts.

Six human rights defenders - representatives of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" - are in prison.

Recently, one of our colleagues, Marfa Rabkova, coordinator of the Voluntary Service "Viasny", was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Recently, it became known that the charges against "Viasna" human rights defenders Ales Bialiatskyi, Vladimer Labkovich, Valyantyn Stefanovich have been changed, according to which they now face 7 to 12 years of imprisonment.

More than a thousand non-profit organizations have been liquidated or are in the process of liquidation in Belarus.

People are given longer and longer deadlines.

Journalist Ksenia Lutskina was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

It became known that part-time production was started in connection with members of several organizations: the Coordination Council, the Human Rights Center "Viasna", the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund.

And such cases will become more and more.

The authorities do not fulfill their international obligations, the Constitution.

Recently, the parliament received a bill on the denunciation of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

This means that Belarusians who are deprived of the right to access to national courts, because they are unemployed and dependent, will not be able to make individual appeals to the UN Human Rights Committee.

Belarusians will have no right to appeal at all."

The meeting participants discussed the importance of documenting human rights violations, but emphasized that efforts should be made to develop faster and more effective mechanisms for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

"Today, neither Belarusians nor civil society organizations can cope without a concrete reaction of the international community to what is happening in our country.

Neither worrying about the situation nor expressing sympathy will help, but only a specific reaction to specific events.

Violations of human rights in Belarus did not happen suddenly.

This has been going on since 1996.

Organizations working in exile continue to work in Belarus, with the situation and conditions existing inside Belarus.

We need to help Belarusian citizens so that they can engage in democratic transformations in the country in the short or long term," Olga Smalyanka is convinced.

Anais Maren

, the special rapporteur on the situation in the field of human rights in Belarus

, noted that impunity for serious violations of human rights is a huge problem.

There is a risk that the perpetrators will continue this practice, since no one has punished them in the past.

As the special rapporteur noted, the UN Human Rights Council this year emphasized the problem of transnational aggression and a number of issues from the point of view of human rights that arise in the context of the war in Ukraine.

The Council drew attention to the persecution of people for expressing their rejection of Russian aggression against Ukraine and Belarus's participation in it, noting that the persecution is taking place against the background of systemic and systematic restrictions, attacks on human rights in Belarus due to arbitrary detentions, deprivation of attorney's licenses, repression against independent media.

The Human Dimension Conference is organized annually by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

It is being held for the 26th time.