MFA Report “The Most Resonant Human Rights Violations in Certain Countries” (2022)

The collective West’s impeccability and superiority in the issues of observance of human rights is one of the persistent stereotypes that have been embedded in the minds of citizens from other regions for decades. 

The ingrained pattern of perception of Western democracies is the successful fruit of the information work of political technologies. 

By publishing the regular report “The most resonant cases of human rights violations in certain countries of the world - 2022”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus aims to dethrone by a brief review thus myth of the impeccability of Western states in respect of human rights. 

The document includes facts and photographs from open sources, including media and documents from international institutions, mainly covering the actions of Western states both in relation to mass actions and in relation to citizens whose position differs from the approaches of the authorities. Briefly, the 2022 report can be characterized as a demonstration of the policy of systemic discrimination implemented by Western governments against a significant part of their own peoples. 

The report is intended to demonstrate in publicly that none of the states of the world ensures the implementation of international documents containing obligations to respect human rights, to the ideal extent as they are fixed on paper. 

The report confirms that such international obligations are mostly utopian reflection of a reality unattainable in practice, and the international standards derived from their interpretation are the subjective opinion of engaged experts. 

The position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus remains unchanged and proceeds from the understanding that the international dimension in the issues of human rights observance, including international agreements and relevant organizations and institutions, within the UN as well, should be used to improve national systems exclusively through voluntary international cooperation on the principles of states’ sovereign equality and non-interference in their internal affairs. 

Any actions aimed at identifying champions and outsiders in issues of human rights observance by international institutions are the excess of these institutions beyond their authority and contradict the very essence of international cooperation.