Committee on International Control makes statement about Belarus

The refusal to allow human rights activists from the Committee on International Control to cross the border can be interpreted as directly impeding the International Observation Mission, claim the authors of the statement. “We consider that the actions taken by the Belarusian authorities in relation to human rights defenders demonstrate disregard of international OSCE commitments of the Republic of Belarus”, is said in the statement.

The authors explain that the Republic of Belarus can demonstrate real commitment to the OSCE principles and obligations only if it takes certain actions. Representatives of the Committee demand to lift the ban on entry of representatives of the International Observation Mission, to provide assistance to the Committee and to remove active international human rights defenders, particularly representatives of the International Observation Mission Andrey Yurov, Maxim Kitsyuk, Marina Tsapok and Mihail Kameniev from the “List of persons whose entry into the Republic of Belarus is prohibited or undesirable".

The authors of the statement demand to make a formal apology for detaining aforementioned human rights defenders and for the time they spent in places of detention.

Representatives of the Committee on International Control also encourage other civic organizations from the OSCE participating States, as well as international non-governmental organizations to join these demands and forward them to the authorities of the Republic of Belarus.