EU Special Representative: Belarusian Security Forces May Appear Before an International Tribunal

• 5.12.2020, 8:31

All those guilty of crimes against the people will be brought to justice.

According to the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, the EU continues to keep the Belarusian issue under review.

He recalled that there was quite a good dialogue between Brussels and Minsk, including on the issue of human rights before the presidential elections, including on the issue of human rights observance.

"But everything changed after the rigged elections on August 9th," Gilmore told dw.com. "The human rights situation in the country has radically deteriorated. 30 thousand people were detained, charges were brought against 900 participants of peaceful protests, but there are no charges against those who used force against demonstrators, including sexual violence."

He said what the EU has already done. In particular, it introduced a draft on the basis of which the human rights Council, which is a UN body, adopted a resolution. It calls on the UN High Commissioner for human rights to investigate human rights violations in Belarus.

The EU representative did not rule out the possibility of creating an international tribunal to try those who beat people, tortured detainees, who used violence against protesters.

However, he drew attention to the fact that usually international tribunals "work as an additional mechanism": "They are created only in situations where the state either does not want or cannot bring such people to justice."