Belarus faced stinging criticism from numerous countries at the United Nations on Monday over its rights record, including charges of systemic repression, politically-motivated prosecutions and widespread torture.
During a review of Belarus's record at the UN in Geneva, many diplomats voiced alarm at the deteriorating situation with allegations of numerous abuses, including some that could amount to "crimes against humanity".
Norway's ambassador Tormod Endresen urged Belarus to "end systemic repression of politically-motivated prosecutions, including detentions, torture and persecution of political opponents and their families".
Eleanor Sanders, Britain's human rights ambassador in Geneva, said her country was "deeply concerned by the continued erosion of human rights in Belarus".
Echoed by a long line of other diplomats, Sanders decried "widespread repression of civil society, independent media and political opposition" in Belarus since 2020.
During the so-called Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which all 193 UN member states must undergo every few years, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Sekreta rejected the criticism as "interference in the domestic affairs of Belarus".
He dismissed concerns raised by multiple diplomats that large numbers of political detainees were languishing in prison.
"Attempts to portray lawbreakers ... as political prisoners or victims of conscience is very much trumped up," he said.
Rights groups say around 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus.
Many were detained during a brutal crackdown on opposition in the wake of President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed re-election and prosecuted on what rights groups have denounced as politically-motivated charges.
Belarusian ambassador Larysa Belskaya slammed Western countries' "attempt to manipulate this topic, putting forward narratives about the supposed unlawfulness of the presidential results", in what she charged was a bid to justify sanctions on the country.
"Elections in Belarus ... are free, fair, lawful and democratic," she said.
Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994, crushing domestic opponents and forging a tight alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A number of diplomats urged Belarus to halt the support it has been providing to Russia in its war in Ukraine.
Belarus received support from some states, with Russia slamming "the politicised approach of a number of Western countries regarding the situation in Belarus".
Russian representative Evgeny Ustinov charged that Western countries were "whipping up of hysteria surrounding the so-called political prisoners" in a bid to "destablise the situation within Belarus".
