English

Rights defenders call for encouraging Minsk to have full-scale participation in Eastern Partnership

 

Activists taking part in the Third Belarusian Human Rights Forum, which took place in Vilnius on October 26 and 27, called on delegations to next month’s Eastern Partnership summit to take efforts to encourage the Belarusian government to remove obstacles to the country’s full-scale participation in the European Union’s program.

An appeal adopted on Sunday said that involvement in the Eastern Partnership drew countries closer to European standards of living, but the “program does not fully realize its potential for improving the human rights situation in Europe’s East.”

Belarus’ human rights record has been worsening, and the presence of political prisoners and flagrant human rights abuse make the country’s real and fruitful participation in the Eastern Partnership “impossible,” said the rights activists.

However, they said, steps need to be made to encourage the Belarusian authorities to improve the human rights situation and, above all, release the political prisoners and restore their rights.

The implementation of the European Union’s European Dialogue for Modernization with Belarus is key to the country’s progress toward reforms and EU standards, according to the appeal.

The Eastern Partnership summit will take place in Vilnius on November 28 and 29.

In mid-October, the Lithuanian foreign ministry handed invitations to attend the event to diplomats representing the six non-EU countries involved in the program, including Belarus.

Signed by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the invitations are addressed to the countries in general and not to specific people, according to media reports. // BelaPAN