\n The UN voiced alarm on Wednesday at an intensifying crackdown in Belarus, condemning harsh sentences handed out to journalists, opposition figures, activists and others as \"politically motivated\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Deputy UN rights chief Nada Al-Nashif decried \"severe and disproportionate sentences\" delivered in Belarus.\n<\/p>\n
\n She told the United Nations Human Rights Council of \"reasonable grounds to believe (the sentences) are politically motivated\" and presented the rights office's latest report on Belarus detailing a campaign of violence and repression directed at opponents and critics of President Alexander Lukashenko.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Some of the human rights violations documented may further amount to crimes against humanity,\" she told the council.\n<\/p>\n
\n Belarusian ambassador Larysa Belskaya slammed the \"biased report\".\n<\/p>\n
\n China and Russia led calls to stop interfering in Belarus's internal affairs, but many countries echoed the concerns.\n<\/p>\n
\n US representative Patrick Elliot told of the \"harassment and intimidation of thousands of Belarusians forced into exile, including the use of politically motivated trials in absentia\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Finnish representative Karoliina Heikinheimo-Perez criticised the \"absurd sentences\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Last Friday, a Minsk court handed 12-year jail terms to two senior staff at the country's largest independent news site Tut.by, shut down after historic protests against Lukashenko in 2020.\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier this month, Belarus sentenced exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in absentia to 15 years for spearheading the protests, and Nobel Prize winner and rights activist Ales Bialiatski to 10 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Al-Nashif said \"no fewer than 1,459 persons\" were currently arbitrarily detained in Belarus on what were believed to be \"politically motivated charges\".\n<\/p>\n
\n As of last month, at least 2,146 people had been convicted under so-called extremism charges, including \"insulting the president\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Al-Nashif noted the closure of more than 1,200 NGOs.\n<\/p>\n
\n - ILO sanctions looming -\n<\/p>\n
\n The International Labour Organization was urged this week to impose far-reaching sanctions on Belarus over its apparent policy of \"destroying the independent trade union movement\" in the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN agency's governing body overwhelmingly voted on Monday in favour of sanctions, including barring Belarus from all ILO meetings and technical assistance.\n<\/p>\n
\n That draft text, which needs to be confirmed at the International Labour Conference in June, demanded that Belarus immediately release all unionists arrested for participating in peaceful demonstrations.\n<\/p>\n
\n And it called on authorities to \"allow the ILO, as a matter of urgency, to ascertain the conditions of arrest and detention and the welfare\" of those in custody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN voiced alarm on Wednesday at an intensifying crackdown in Belarus, condemning harsh sentences handed out to journalists, opposition figures, activists and others as \"politically motivated\". Deputy UN rights chief Nada Al-Nashif decried \"severe and disproportionate sentences\" delivered in Belarus. She told the United Nations Human Rights Council of \"reasonable grounds to believe (the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-114189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n