France welcomes the invocation of the Moscow Mechanism once morest Belarus, on March 23, 2023, by 38 OSCE participating States, in the wake of the publication by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Man for his report on the alarming deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. This mechanism aims to investigate allegations of serious violations of commitments made by States within the framework of the OSCE in the field of human rights, and to identify actions to remedy them.
This mission of independent experts will be responsible for drawing up a report on violations by the Belarusian authorities of fundamental freedoms and human rights. The report intends (i) to highlight developments that have occurred to the detriment of the recommendations made in the previous Moscow Mechanism report once morest Belarus in 2020 and (ii) to identify the actions taken by the Belarusian government, in the framework of the Russian war of aggression once morest Ukraine, which has worsened the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country.
The group of invoking States plans to appoint a French expert as rapporteur for the mechanism, which is why France cannot be one of the invoking States on this occasion. In 2020, France participated in the previous invocation of the Moscow Mechanism once morest Belarus in the context of post-election repression.
France reiterates its firm condemnation of the serious violations of human rights in Belarus and of the complicity of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko in the illegal and unjustified military aggression carried out by Russia once morest Ukraine.
