On 26 June 2025, Latvia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council on behalf of the Nordic and Baltic countries (NB8) on the situation of civil and political rights in Belarus. She stressed the intolerable state of human rights and lack of accountability for human rights violations in Belarus.
“We demand the Belarusian authorities to release all of the nearly 1200 political prisoners, to cease repression of civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, trade unionists and LGBTQI community and dissenting voices,” stated Minister Braže. She noted that certain violations may amount to crimes against humanity.
“The Belarusian authorities continue to carry out systemic repressions – eradication of dissent, closure of nearly 2000 NGOs and a complete crackdown on human rights. The sham elections were devoid of legitimacy and failed any international standards,” she stressed.
The Minister also drew attention to the Belarusian authorities’ practice of holding trials in absentia, arbitrary arrests, sexual and gender-based violence – especially against women – and other severe ill-treatment of detainees. She expressed that the NB8 countries were appalled by the politically motivated forced imposition of psychiatric treatment.
Foreign Minister further called for an end to the instrumentalization, by Belarus, of migrants at the European Union’s external border. She urged the international community to hold the Belarusian authorities fully accountable for human rights violations and for their complicity in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The joint statement on behalf of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden was delivered in video format during the 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Mr. Nils Muižnieks.
The 59th session of the Human Rights Council is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 16 June to 9 July 2025.