Minsk advises Washington to pay attention to human rights violations in U.S.
MINSK. April 22 (Interfax) - The annual report on human rights conditions in the world prepared by the U.S. State Department is an internal affair of the United States and Washington should have first paid attention to human rights violations in the United States, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
"We think that before evaluating the human rights situation in 193 world countries, the U.S. should pay attention to human rights violations in its country and eliminate them," Deputy Head of Foreign Ministry Information Department Maria Vanshina said.
"The Belarusian side has said and is stressing now: the report prepared by the U.S. State Department on the human rights situation in the world is an internal affair of the U.S.," Vanshina said.
Vanshina said that Belarus "has successfully passed the procedure of the occasional universal review in the framework of the UN Human Rights Council."
Belarus is called "an authoritarian state" in the annual report prepared by the U.S. State Department. The report says that the most significant human rights problems in Belarus are: "a) citizens were unable to change their government; b) in a system bereft of checks and balances, authorities committed frequent, serious abuses; and c) persons continued to be imprisoned on politically motivated charges, and the government failed to account for politically motivated disappearances in the past."
The U.S. State Department said that unjustified arrests and abuses by security forces took place in Belarus as well. Washington said that the Belarusian judicial system suffered from ineffectiveness and political interference. The Belarusian authorities continue violating the rights of privacy and restricting civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion and movement.
